by Alick Sinkala.
Long time ago, girls used to spend a lot of their time doing house chores and learning how to look after their husbands in preparation for marriage whilst boys could spend most of their time in school. This tradition is still happening in Chiba and other localities of Kasama where each time a girl child falls pregnant, her parents would either force her to get married or drop out of school and stay home waiting for the man responsible to finish school and later marry her. This is encouraging girls to bring more fatherless children at their parents home. This has really affected the education of the girls not only in Kasama but this is common especially in rural areas of Zambia. Though the female representation in leadership positions has started rising country wide, the rural areas are still lagging behind. As we commemorate the 16 days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence, let us rise up and say Abasha GBV.
