Girl Child, and Vulnerable Children & Youths Care Support

Every human being is a unique individual and that we all have a right to good education, good health and other basic needs and should access means to a comfortable life in one way or another.

Girl Child and Vulnerable Children Care Support aims at improving the quality of life of the girl child, vulnerable children and youths by establishing a permanent home, school and health care center for them and train care givers to enable these children get adequate care, love and support, and to provide adequate education to make them good citizens and have a better future through good education right from a tender age.

The project is also creating awareness to the community and the outside world about the need to protect and support the vulnerable children and the orphans as well as protecting their rights
The Zambia 2010 Census of Population and Housing national analytical report provides updated data on demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the Zambia population at province, district, to the lowest administrative levels. The Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) was 76 deaths per 1000 live births in which rural and urban areas had rates at 81 and 68 deaths per 1000 live births respectively. Copperbelt had 66. Only 11% of urban births and 3.4% of rural births are registered, meaning that the majority of children are denied this basic right to access good health
Women
Life expectancy: females as a % of males 2011 102
Adult literacy rate: females as a % of males 2007-2011* 77
Enrolment ratios: females as a % of males 2008-2011*, Primary GER 101
Enrolment ratios: females as a % of males 2008-2011*, Secondary GER -
Survival rate to the last grade of primary: females as a % of males 2008-2011* 95
Contraceptive prevalence (%) 2007-2012* 41
Antenatal care (%) 2007-2012*, At least one visit 94
Antenatal care (%) 2007-2012*, At least four visits 60
Delivery care (%) 2007-2012*, Skilled attendant at birth 47
Delivery care (%) 2007-2012*, Institutional delivery 48
Delivery care (%) 2007-2012*, C-section 3
Maternal mortality ratio , 2007-2011*, Reported 590
Maternal mortality ratio , 2010, Adjusted 440
Maternal mortality ratio, 2010, Lifetime risk of maternal death (1 in :) 37
Source: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/zambia_statistics.html

The Zambia 2010 Census of Population and Housing national analytical report also revealed that Zambia’s population in 2010 was 13,092,666 which increased from 9,885,591 in 2000 with the male population at 6.5 million representing 49.3 per cent while that of female was 6.6million representing 50.7 percent of the total population. On the unemployment rate involving youths between 15 to 35 years by rural, urban and province, 7.5 per cent were from rural areas, 22.0 per cent in urban. In provinces Copperbelt was at 29.6 per cent. The report says 4.3 million males and 1.8 million females countrywide, persons were in labour force, out of which 2.4 million were males and 1.8 million females countrywide.

It says of the 4.3 million persons in labour force, 554,202 (13.0 per cent) were unemployed, with the Copperbelt province having the highest unemployment rate at 22.1 per cent. The recent re-trenchment of mine workers on the Copperbelt has compounded the problem of massive unemployment in the province making it extra difficult for the marginalized girl and other vulnerable children to have a meaningful life.

A UNICEF project document (2012) on orphans and vulnerable children indicates that approximately 1.6 million children in Zambia are orphaned and, of these, 80% come from poor families. Children’s vulnerability to poverty, adversity and HIV/AIDS is largely contextual but also indicative of the widespread situation in protecting them. Zambia currently has over 1.6 million orphans and vulnerable children but added that this was likely to be an under-estimate. The data is based on recent research conducted by the Institute of Economic and Social Research at UNZA (University of Zambia) and Boston University, Centre for International Health and funded by USAID. The article added that a school census conducted by the Ministry of Education in 2007 estimated the total number of orphans at 1.3 million and according to the 2007 Zambian Demographic Health Survey, 19.2 per cent of all children living in households were vulnerable while 14.9 per cent were orphans.

It stated that between 2004 and 2008, the number of orphans grew by 13 per cent to 1,302,307 but current estimates (2009) based on available data showed that there were 1,603,928 orphaned and vulnerable children in Zambia, a figure still likely to be an under-estimate of the true situation. (The Post one of Zambia’s leading newspapers. March, 22, 2003). If the number does not fall on the Copperbelt Province, (especially in Chingola, Kalulushi and Ndola) in the next decade it will increase the risk of children turning to the streets, and becoming beggars and thieves.

The rise in the proportion of child-headed households and child labourers means a rise in percentages of the illiterate, early pregnancies, and related consequences such as infant and maternal mortality rates, increased incidence of those who are infected by sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and HIV/AIDS, and drug abuse. While the Government will continue to increase spending on reproductive health services, it will also be losing valuable human resources. The cycle of child poverty will thus be passed on to next generation and become chronic. It is evident that the HIV/AIDS scourge has taken its toll on those who should otherwise be enjoying childhood in Zambia.

A large proportion of deprived children have acquired psychopathological behaviour, increasingly becoming involved in crime, drug abuse and violence. Many, too, are vulnerable to HIV/AIDS and yet enter the labour market at very young ages, all of which seriously affects their growth and well-being. Children under this category have experienced extreme poverty, which is compounded household, community and national poverty.

Save the Children UK studies on girl child poverty in East and Southern Africa confirmed that children are a vulnerable category of the population, and that policy and institutional frameworks are taking longer to cope with changing sources of crisis and adversity. A link between large/polygamous families with poverty, and the high level of household population (six to eight members), increases the difficulty of providing adequate coverage and quality of public services such as education, health and housing for families, especially for children. Poor health reduces the productive capacity of households and limits children’s access to their basic needs.

The magnitude and complexity of the problem of child poverty in Chingola, Kalulushi and Ndola is large and growing, and cannot be ignored. Unfortunately, children and young people continue to be marginalized in spite of interventions, especially where assumptions are made that interventions which address adult and household needs are also good for all children, including boys and girls of school-going and non-school-going ages. This partly explains why child poverty is underrepresented on the Copperbelt Province. Child poverty has been analysed both subjectively and objectively.

Studies by Save the Children UK have analysed child poverty indicators on the basis of how they relate with institutional frameworks through which monitoring would be effected A child in poverty on the Copperbelt has suffered the following:

Lack of personal, emotional and spiritual well-being due to lack of parental guidance, care and love, not having the means to get what one wants, inability to solve daily problems, both as a result of lack of money as well as lack of initiative and innovation that results from financial poverty (‘poverty of the mind’), being dependent on others, lack of religious grounding, discrimination, deprivation and ostracism, and alcohol abuse by parents

Lack of physical well-being due to lack of access to health care (medicine, immunization), and are vulnerable to disease, especially STDs and malaria

Lack of family and social well-being due to lack of one or both parents, being forced to live on the street because parents cannot support all/any of children, family breakdown, polygamous family, households with many children and with no use of family planning, inability to enroll in school or to pursue education on an ongoing basis as a result of school costs, uniform, books, pens, etc., and lack of protection from abuse, exploitation

Lack of financial and material well-being due to lack of money, clothing, food, accommodation, material goods such as bicycles, books, bedding, cooking, lack of land, lack of skills, lack of opportunities and sources of income, child labour exploitation, and lack of access to transport and communication facilities.

Lack of political well-being due to lack of freedom of speech, living in a superstition-affected area, and lack of security

Lack of environmental well-being. The child lives in an area susceptible to food insecurity, witchcraft and ritual murders and lacks clean and safe water as well as latrines and proper sanitation.

Zambia officially has extensive social protection targeted at low-capacity households, ranging from social assistance, protection of a vulnerable child, social insurance programmes, programmes to prevent, and programmes to improve economic productivity to promotion. However, these programmes face immense challenges and the actual coverage is very low and, in some cases, actually declining. Some analysts describe the programmes' coverage as patchy and transitory and not especially coherent or logical. Social insurance initiatives, such as micro-insurance, health insurance and other contributory schemes exist, but these are very limited in their membership.

Formal sector workers are protected by well-resourced pension, sickness and disability benefits, but most low-capacity households, especially in peri-urban and rural areas, work outside the formal sector. The emphasis on protection, prevention and promotion means that households move out of poverty only very slowly because they are unable to invest in activities that have greater returns. They remain highly at risk of sliding back into poverty and applying negative coping strategies. A balance between protection, prevention and promotion, however can only be achieved through more and consistent resources.