— Grade seven drop out to lead high HIV/AIDS prevalence – Senior Chief Kanongesha

A traditional leader in North Western Province says the HIV prevalent rate might rise sharply due to increased school drop outs in his chiefdom.

Senior Chief Kanongesha of the Lunda people in Mwinilunga district  says that unless the grade seven drop-outs are streamlined in the education mainstream, the HIV/AIDS in his chiefdom like the rest of the country would reduce because the school-youths would be busy with studies at school.

ZANIS reports that the traditional leader was speaking in an interview today on the side-lines of World AIDS Day which falls on December 1st, 2014.

He said the pupils  who recently did not qualify to grade  eight would now be obviously  frustrated  to even engage in illicit behaviours of excessive drinking beer, taking drugs and prostitution.

He said it was regrettable that most Grade 7 pupils in his area have failed to make it to Grade 8.

He appealed to Government to build more schools in his chiefdom so that parents and guardians could send their children to school.

Zambia today joined the rest of the world in commemorating the 2014 world AIDS day.

The local theme for this year is, “Zambia @ 50, towards zero stigma while the global theme for World AIDS Day is “focus, partner, achieve: an AIDS-free generation.”

And government says that stigma has been identified as one of the main barriers to universal access and utilisation of HIV and AIDS related services.

Community Development Mother and Child Health minister Emerine Kabanshi says government is already employing strategies that would reduce and eventually eliminate stigma.

She disclosed that at least two million people are targeted for counselling and onward declaration of HIV/AIDS status to people living with HIV/AIDS.

The minister said this when she launched the World AIDS Day/Week – Districts HIV Testing and Counselling campaign which fail on November 25, 2014.

Meanwhile, Senior Chief Kanongesha says pupils at most learning institutions in his chiefdom were  allegedly sharing one desk in class.

The traditional leader named the most affected learning institution as Sakapoti basic School among the other five schools.