By THANDIWE MOYO –

CHIEF’S spouses from various chiefdoms have stepped up the training on early marriages and the need to report such perpetrators to relevant authorities.
The spouses said it was time for them to show their love and care for a girl-child through curbing early marriages in their chiefdoms.
Chieftainess Mwansa Kombe of Makololo Village in Samfya District said she was optimistic of the rules put up in the area concerning early marriages.
“We are the mothers of the nation and for that reason we need to work hard towards stopping the scourge of early marriages in our chiefdoms,” she said.
Ms Kombe said she had created groups that spoke on the challenges faced in early marriages and that the participants were parents within the area.
She said the groups also taught topics such as educative mindset, success in education and many other developmental lessons.
Ms Mary Musonda of Chibale Village in Serenje who was among the chiefs’ spouses said her husband’s chiefdom brought a law of not only punishing parents who married off their young children but that the chief also punished the young girls and  husbands indulging in early marriages.
She said if anyone was found younger than eighteen but married, both the husband and wife were separated to avoid early marriages.
“We are now separating young girls from their purported husbands and we take them back to schools were they can learn” she said.
She urged the Government to put up more schools so that most girls could involve themselves with a developmental life.
Ms Sampa Mwango from Chief Chikwanda in Muchinga Province said, she had implemented   more talks on stopping early marriages and for that reason, the trend had reduced within the chiefdom.
She said early marriages were a challenge that most chiefdoms faced and that the only way it could be curbed was through changing the mind set of parents in the villages.
Ms Mwango said it was encouraging that the First Lady Esther Lungu recognised the importance of curbing early marriages in chiefdoms using chiefs’ wives through various projects.