Copperbelt Province Permanent Secretary Augustine Kasongo has called on parents to desists from sending their children to beg and to sell on the streets to curb the cases of cholera affecting many people in the country.
Mr Kasongo appealed to parents during the launch of the provincial roll out of children’s code act in Kitwe that they should remove their children from the streets and take the responsibility of taking care of them.
He said as the province embarks on the roll out of the Children act awareness, the involvement of chiefs and District Commissioners is vital in promoting the values that uplifts and stops the abuse of children.
“The Chiefs guidance, wisdom, and commitment to the welfare of their communities such as sensitisation of the contents of the children’s code act will help members of the society to understand and take care of the children,” Mr Kasongo.
Mr Kasongo said the involvement of chiefs in the awareness of the Children’s act shows the government’s commitment to addressing cultural and traditional barriers affecting the growth and wellbeing of children.
He stated that government has outlined interventions to tackle gender-based violence, teenage pregnancies, child abuse, and violence against children.
“To this effect efforts are being made towards child protection and ending child marriage, rehabilitation, and reintegrate children living on the street,” he said.
Mr Kasongo told the gathering that government is focused on improving mult-sectoral coordination and networking among players in social protection programmes.
He said priority has been given to nurturing and supporting early childhood development and facilitating a conducive learning environment to support early development of literacy and problem solving skills.
The Permanent Secretary pointed out that there is a need to include national values and principles in the young generation who are slowly diluting the country’s culture.
He also bemoaned that the exposure to internet has negatively affected the young generation who mostly abuse it.
Ministry of Community Development Assistance Director for Child Development Beatrice Muyambango said the overall goal of the Children’s act is to provide legislative measures for effective and efficient protection of children, preventing violation of the rights of children, abuse, violence, and all forms of harmful practices.
Ms Muyambango noted that the law will provide measures for corrective action where there is violation of rights of a child or where the abuse has occurred.
“This law is not meant to give powers to children over parents not at all, instead, this law brings out both the children’s rights and their responsibilities as well as corrective action and care for children who are or may be victims of various forms of harsh treatment, violence or parental neglect,” Ms Muyambango said.
Ms Muyambango noted that the children’s code act has provided for a national coordination committee for children and a replication of similar structures at various levels of implementation such as provincial, district, and community.
In Southern province children start school late, it’s common to find a 15yrs old in grade 1 or 2. The reason is that they have to take cows for grazing, it’s worse in the dry season because they go to distant areas where they camp for weeks because streams and grazing fields nearby have dried up. So those that send their children to betela ng’ombe are as guilty of child abuse as those that send them to beg on streets or to catch finkubala or to fish depending on which region.
Show us a 25 years old Grade 12, if thats the case. STop undermining other tribes thru tribalist attitudes. Do you find kids begging there? Grazing is for holidays just to educate you …. go live there and understand why these people are self-sufficient.
He has same job as Pilato. What that CB PS is saying and promoting could befits Pilato, he will be listened to by street parents. Unfortunately Pilato… I like that thug though.
How can sending children to herd cattle be the same as sending them to beg on the streets ???….
If that is the case, some regions have no self pride and are shameless…….
Ayatolla #
Very true. Southern province is the only province that tends to have grade 12 school levers who are quite old. It’s a cultural thing. It’s very common to find someone finishing secondary school at the age of 23 or 24 as these guys spend years raising cows before entering classrooms. My uncle started grade 1 at 10yrs.
This man is mad. Your government has forced young people into begging and you come up with this nansense!
Send them to PF headquarters seeing they have all the solutions
They specialise in youth empowerment
And experienced ones are given one cattle per year as remunerations for ku embela. They start that traditional profession at the age of 4 years.
Those junkie boys and girls you find on streets must be destined for ZNS or Army, but they don’t get through because those slots are reserved for big fish.
Are they begging at your house? Just enjoy this life while it lasts.
@Ayatollah and Mainga, Better start school late than begging as a way of livelihood. Driving in Lusaka you notice kids who were with parents are now themselves begging with children at their back and stopping at traffic lights they say ‘Uwafwilisho mukwai’. Kasongo may explain better
I thought govt would be equally worried about street kids who beg during the day and take by force during the night.