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VICE-PRESIDENT Inonge Wina has advised women groups in the Church to a take a leading role in addressing early marriages and pregnancies among the teenage girls.
Ms Wina appealed to women church groups to introduce mentorship programmes to guide the girls in churches and communities on biblical principles concerning moral uprightness.
She said this yesterday at the United Church of Zambia (UCZ) Saint Andrews congregation during the Women Christian Fellowship (WCF) annual thanksgiving service.
She was saddened that recent statistics indicate that maternal deaths attributed to teenage pregnancies were on the rise.
“Introduce leadership programmes to empower our girls to take on personal responsibilities over their lives and also introduce focus group discussions with the youths to give them opportunities to tell their stories and come up with their own solutions,” she said.
She was also concerned with the increased number of Gender Based Violence (GBV) over the years, a scourge which she noted had the potential of impacting negatively on women’s participation in national development.
Ms Wina said women had continued to play an important role in the social and economic development of the country.
“From the beginning of time, having been created as helpers to men, women have been the main actors in promotion of love, peace and unity and hard work, we are indeed created as change agents,” she said.
She advised women to take advantage of the programmes that Government had introduced for women to explore their opportunities and see which ones were relevant for their organisations.
St Andrews congregation Reverend, Alex Mwalilino in his sermon said there was need not to take things for granted as families, the church and the nation at large but submit to God.
Reverend Mwalilino said thanksgiving should not just be an annual event but should be meant to glorify God by mediating and reflecting upon God.
WCF convener Gertrude Simwinga commended the Vice-president for joining the women for the thanksgiving service.
Ms Simwinga said the women would continue to pray for her and the general leadership.
TimesofZambia
