FIRST LADY DR CHRISTINE KASEBA
By NAKUBIANA SHABONGO-
FIRST Lady Christine Kaseba has urged the 10 pupils selected from 30 groups under the Youth Mentorship Programme to strive to be in the top 10 academically to sustain national development. And Dr Kaseba has expressed sadness at the high number of girls dropping out of school as a result of early marriages.
She said 15-19 per cent of school-going girls were having children while teenage pregnancies and HIV/AIDS prevalence was going up.
The First Lady said she expected the pupils to work as a team by protecting, motivating and reading together, as team work would help them achieve a lot. She was speaking at the launch of the Youth Mentorship Programme in Lusaka yesterday.
The programme, funded by the United Nations Development Programme, helps in mentoring the young generation to become responsible citizens. “You and I will enter into a social contract that the 10 pupils from each school will always strive to be in the top 10,” she said.
Dr Kaseba called on teachers to help the pupils set goals and individual targets, and to identify a career path.
She appealed to the participating schools to come up with their life histories that would help her office track what they would be doing to achieve their set targets.
She was confident that the pupils would achieve their goals through fighting vices such as drug abuse, child marriages, early pregnancies and prostitution.
And Sports and Youth Deputy Minister Christopher Mulenga said youths needed to be guided in making career choices. Education, Science, Vocational Training and Early Education Permanent Secretary, Chishimba Nkosha appealed to the youths in Zambia to desist from engaging in riotous behaviour as that would deter them from achieving their goals and contributing to national development.
Tilole Mwanza, a former beneficiary of one of the First Lady’s mentorship programmes, the Junior Achievement Zambia programme through which she is now at the University of Zambia, urged the pupils to take advantage of the initiative to reach greater academic heights.
