2)–Govt targets improving literacy levels

————Nkeyema District Community Development Officer Nawa Mulopo says government is committed to improving literacy levels in poor and vulnerable communities.

This is because the measure will help improve levels of understanding among the people and also reduce poverty levels in the country.

Ms Mulopo says women clubs in Nkeyema district have been issued with writing boards through literacy clubs to impart writing, reading and arithmetic skills to the members.

In an interview with ZANIS in Nkeyema district today, Ms Mulopo said with such skills women will be able to make positive project plans which will help in poverty alleviation.

Ms Mulopo said women need to engage in income-generating activities which are sustainable to their livelihoods and therefore imparting arithmetic skills will help them manage their finances properly.

She urged women who wish to access government empowerment funds to form clubs which they should register with the Registrar of Societies, local authorities or any other government institution mandated to do so.

Ms Mulopo said clubs should ensure that they have a constitution, a bank account, a list of their members and a complete project application form obtainable from the community development offices.

She encouraged women groups in the area to lay their own foundation for poverty alleviation as government empowers them through the literacy clubs and the provision of empowerment funds.

Several women clubs in Nkeyema district have benefitted from government’s poverty alleviation programmes and have also been given a number of ploughs as an empowerment tool.