By BRIAN HATYOKA –

TRADITIONAL leaders in Sihumbwa Village of Chief Musokotwane in Kazungula, Southern Province have pledged to mobilise their subjects to get involved in the fight against child marriages and Gender Based Violence (GBV) in the area.
The leaders also agreed to become activists in championing the fight against GBV and child marriages in their village.
Twenty-two senior headmen, neighbourhood watch groups, traditional counselors and women groups, from Sihumbwa Village made the resolution in Livingstone last week at the just ended GBV and anti-child marriage workshop hosted by the Zambia Centre for Communication Programme (ZCCP) commonly known as Kwatu.
In the past, most of the traditional leaders and villagers in the area felt it was normal to engage in GBV and early marriages.
This was the reason why traditional leaders engaged ZCCP to seek help as cases of GBV and child marriages were on the increase.
ZCCP technical advisor Emma Mwiinga described the workshop as productive and successful.
Ms Mwiinga said the traditional leaders were given adequate information on how to handle GBV  cases and refer some of them to the police and other relevant authorities.
“The leaders are now more enlightened and they are very grateful to the information we gave them during the training,” Ms Mwiinga said.
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Chiefs and Traditional Affairs (MCTA) in Kazungula District called for increased awareness campaigns against early marriages, especially in rural areas where the practice was rampant.
MCTA Kazungula District chiefs’ affairs officer Mukonde Munjile said there was need to intensify the campaign against early marriages, particularly in rural areas, where most people were still thinking that it was normal to engage in the practice.
Mr Munjile bemoaned increasing cases of early marriages in Kazungula despite the various efforts aimed at mitigating the vice.
He said two chiefdoms out of five in Kazungula recorded 152 cases of early marriages during the last quarter of 2015.
He said most victims, who had since dropped out of school, were aged between 14 and 17.
The Zambia Health Demographic Health Survey for 2007 as well as for 2013 and 2014, continued showing a gloomy picture of 47 per cent of Zambian women being victims of GBV perpetuated mostly by men.