By BRIAN HATYOKA –

A SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD mother in Livingstone is struggling to provide for her four other siblings and her child.
The teenage mother stopped school in Grade Five at 14 when she was impregnated by a 21-year-old man and later forced into a brief marriage with another older man.
According to Sunday Times investigations, Alice Mwala has been married twice from the time she fell pregnant and gave birth and her ordeal has continued to deteriorate as the two former spouses had engaged in fights between them over the girl.
Mwala, who has a 14-month-old baby and looks after two school-going young brothers and a niece said she was looking for help to continue in Grade Five as she was facing difficulties to sustain her family.
Mwala and her younger brothers lost their mother four years ago and they are currently staying in Ngwenya Township in a house left by their late parents.
She said the man who impregnated her and the second man who also married her had since abandoned her and she was only receiving support from an organisation known as Tutalike Life Begins Childhood Education Nutrition Centre.
“I am asking for help to go back to school and start leaving my child at home. I made a mistake and I want to correct it by going back to school.
“There are problems here and we are also asking for help with clothes, school uniforms and food to eat as we are all orphans,” she said.
Mwala said Godfrey Mwanza, 21, the man who allegedly impregnated her when she was in Grade Five at Libala Basic School in 2013, accepted responsibility for the pregnancy but later abandoned her.
She said another man Gift Siandeke, who is older than Mwanza, allegedly married her by force for three days and dumped her after which he married another woman.
Asked if she was aware that the two men committed the offence of defilement and needed to be reported to the Police, Mwala said she was not aware that any crime was committed as she was ignorant of the law.
Tutalike Life Begins Early Childhood Education Nutrition Centre coordinator Susiku Mwanang’ombe, who is reaching out to Mwala and her siblings, proposed that the Social Cash Transfer Scheme should be extended to child-headed families.
Ms Mwanang’ombe said it would be difficult for the Government to stop early marriages or pregnancies this year if the victims were not empowered economically.
“Government has to stop teenage pregnancies and marriages by providing resources for child headed families so that they don’t indulge in wrong vices.
“I am the one helping Mwala and her family in terms of daily food, porridge for the baby, pumpers and detergents among others,” she said.
Ms Mwanang’ombe said she was thinking of taking Mwala back to school to continue in Grade Five when her baby was one year and eight months.