Girls - Early marraige

Zambian lasses (from Lusaka Museum Arts Collection)

Gender inequality issues exist all over the world, in any country, at any stage of development. Often the issues derive from how cultural practices and views, accepted traditional beliefs about gender and economic factors, to name a few, are in direct contradiction of what it means to be alive in this world, whatever society a person lives in, and the rights all people have. From topless specific page pictures in tabloid reading material, representation in politics, sport or employment, or access to education, equal economic opportunities and rewards in life, women often appear to be undervalued, exploited, vulnerable to violation and denied their rightful place in many societies..

In Zambia, these issues, added to other factors are harmful and life threatening in a very immediate, real and unique way. The often deliberate collision of western cultural values and economic models, with traditional tribal Bantu societies in sub-Saharan Africa has its casualties and these, not occasionally, are women and girls. Casualties in many societies is one area where girls and women are well over-represented. In some areas where progress has or is being made in gender issues in the UK and western societies, there is nominal provision in Zambia and other African countries. Western influence and intervention, through intentional economic agendas and on the back of widespread mass media and internet access induced cultural change, have had a major impact of other countries. In the world global market, and in their own proclaimed ethical principles, the powerful nations must accept some responsibility for this.

Zambia has one of the highest rates of childhood and early marriage in the world. Data is again difficult to obtain, but latest figures show that 42% of 20-24 year old females are married before they are 18 and in more traditional rural areas the figure is as high as 60%, many of these girls as young as 13 years old. An early marriage can be defined as a formal, statutory or customary union of a girl before the age of 18 (Convention on Human Rights), requiring the girl to set aside her childhood and assume the role of a woman, leading to a life in that society of disadvantage and deprivation.

Girls in rural areas most at risk

Three main reasons lie behind early marriages for girls and young women:

• Poverty - in any country this is a trap that is hard to get out of. In Zambia, the poverty is overwhelming and extreme. Escape is literally a dream. It's hard to put into words some of the conditions so many of the people live in. To escape this is a exception almost unheard of. Widespread mass media and internet has introduced a brightly lit shop window of the western material world to Zambia and it's people that they have to peer through each day. They can't get away from it. What does distract them at all is the day to day objective of getting something for their families to eat. One way out of poverty for families, at least in the short term, are the male dowries paid to families of girls they marry, and often the subsequent extra pair of hands to work in the fields. In desperate poverty, this is a very attractive way out and can lead families to see little choice. Girls from poorer families are five times more likely to marry early. Choice can often be linked to information and education.
• Education - Non-educated girls and women are more vulnerable to early marriage. 65% of girls without a primary education between 20-24 years of age marry before they are 18. In comparison, 17% of girls educated to secondary or higher level marry before 18. Girls are often married off to provide money to send male siblings to school. This overlaps with traditional roles given, and societal views towards women. In the UK, most girls go to school and complete an education and are empowered because of it. Zambian girls marrying early drop out of school and never return. This lack of education perpetuates the poverty trap and has severe consequences both for the personal future of the women themselves, and the society they live in. Without education more women are abused, physically, sexually and emotionally and many more are infested with HIV and AIDS. Sexual activity in marriage is significantly higher, with married men three times more likely to carry the HIV virus. Under the shadow of violence and cultural norms,  married women are unable to refuse sex or insist on condom use. Younger girls are far more likely to suffer traumatic childbirth and are five times more likely to suffer maternal mortality. Figures from 2010 indicate 30% of deaths in childbirth were young girls. Early marriage can literally end a girl's life.
• Traditional beliefs - in Bantu society traditional roles and views of women are still held but this is within a society that has undergone forced change in so many different ways, both from internal factors and external international ones. The philosophical demographic of the country and the people in it is shifting. New languages, in more than just linguistics are evolving and again, there are casualties to this change. Although the law in Zambia states that a girl must be 21 to be married, customary tribal legal systems contradict and override this, leading to marriage at the advent of puberty, notably, but not always in rural areas. Many of these traditional practices habitual, however, and change is not impossible. Traditions are made by people and can be changed by people. People can change. If people are provided with the information and educated, things can be done for the good of people and their communities. Often change comes about, not by looking at the do not's and negatives, but by looking and concentrating on the positives and alternatives. What can be done instead? Many tribal chiefs, both male and female are helping as well as central government initiatives. People have to see the benefits of change in action. Chiefs are recognising the economic advantages of stopping early marriages and the benefits for local communities. They are beginning to understand the dangers of early marriage and the sense in avoiding it.  This all depends upon education and promotion of information. Girls who excel at school and higher education go out,earn more money and support their families so much better. It's important to enlist, equip and inform NGO's (non-government organisations), religious leaders, medical, health and school personal and most importantly by far, the young girls and women of the country. This is one of the most important roles of the football academies. The girls in the academies want to be girls and play football with their pals, they don't want to get married or be brides. They have dreams of playing for Barcelona or the Zambia national teams. They have aspirations to be nurses and teachers and to steal those and their right to make life decisions for themselves is tragic.

It is important at this stage to recognise that the mos important thing here are the girls and young women. What do they want? They want to go to school. It is alright politicians making laws and people sending money but girls need to be empowered not only in Zambia but across the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa and further afield. First, they need to be asked and listened to. Boys and men need to be educated in gender relations too. Such is the discrepancy in gender equality in Zambia, that changes in this would have dramatic and fantastic repercussions for everybody in the country. Women make up a massive proportion of the population of the country and to empower them to fulfill their individual and collective potential and excel in being alive can only be a good thing in the struggle to alleviate other devastating challenges that disrupt the country and the lives of everyone in it. It is not just a Zambian issue, but a developmental issue.

Dynamic Stars girls contingent

The football academies that Goal Zambia works with welcomes girls as members and as young as 7 and up to 14 years old. This is a key age for the education of these women and what they learn now they will carry with them for the rest of their lives. They are the future women of the country and have an equally important role to play in the countries future. Perhaps, faced with the issues they are faced with, their personal short term future may even be more important. On the pitch of Chainda, before a match, at half time or between training sessions, the coach of the Dynamic Stars, Kelly Mukuka, will talk to the girls teams about some of these issues. He does this because he cares about the people in the community he lives and about the country. He understands the alternatives. Health personal also visit the pitch, so important for the girl, and boys, unable to attend school. Part of Goal Zambia's work is to encourage and facilitate this to happen. We are inspired to see the kids have fun because that's what they want, and they look beautiful when they do.

Case Studies:

Agnes, from Lusaka, is 17 and has been married for 5 months after her parents decided they wanted to relinquish responsibility for her. A complete stranger paid the price she was advertised for, she married and moved to the small town of Chibombo, 2 hours away from the city. To escape this life she describes as "torrid", she would almost certainly face being disowned by her parents as a disgraced bride. I have seen this happen.

Beatrice  married when she was 15 and is now aged 32. She states she was terrified and confused on her wedding day when she had no idea what she was doing. In her first year of marriage she nearly died from severe complications in childbirth.

Mansa lives in the Northern Province of Zambia and was married when she was 12, to a 16 year old man. Her parents needed a dowry quickly. She was told by them to stop attending school and marry him. She was valued at £100. £50 of this was paid in cash plus a field of maize. She works in the field. She's 18 now, with 3 children and has never returned to school. She gets beaten up regularly and when he's not beating her up, he's sleeping around with lots of girlfriends. Her parents tell her she shouldn't worry - that's what all men do.

Aids - Women and girls

Young women and girls are the highest HIV infected group in Zambia. Females between 15-24 are twice as likely to carry the virus than their male counterparts. 16.9% of females who live in urban areas carry the virus compared to 10.3% in rural locations. 16.2% of females in Zambia are HIV positive. The general demographic for the highest incidence of infection has been described as "urban females in a long term relationship." The Dynamic Stars, one of the academies that Goal Zambia works with, have 25 female members between 7 and 15 years of age. Both for those that attend school and have parents, or not, this stage is a vital one for the rest of their lives. The factors in the rate of HIV prevalence in this group are many and diverse.

Girls in the compound commonly become sexually active at an early age, sometimes around 10 years old and generally with sexual partners over 5 years their senior who have already had several previous sexual relationships. Extreme poverty means that families are eagerly tempted to marry their daughters off at an earlier than the legal age of 18. The male dowries and economic benefits to this often out way the risk to the girl.The new husband can be another pair of hands in the growing of maize. Many children in the care of unfamiliar extended family members can be at risk from sexual abuse and rape. Work is being done to develop the skills of professionals in health and education in order

Zambia has serious and deep rooted issues with gender inequality. Women are very unlikely to refuse sexual intercourse with their husbands, or insist on the use of a condom. Male to female domestic violence is widespread and often the norm. Children at school play games openly, whereby the boy will remove his belt and beat the compliant girl on the backside. This is perfectly acceptable. Despite the fact that many women are too scared to reveal facts, 15% have reported to have been raped either within or without marriage and although work is in place within Zambia to tackle these problem at the root cause of domestic violence the resources and finances are minimal.

Mother to child transmissions was by far the most common form of infection of people under 15 years of age in 2007 but much progress has been made since then. This has been centred around providing councelling, testing access to preventative services and antiretroviral drugs along with careful tracking of preventative success cases by a central health organisation. Again, there are discrepancies between rural and urban areas in the availability of clinics and logistical problems of accessing them, although there are innovative attempts at tackling theses using mobile phone technology the use of Mother and Baby packs and often most importantly, the training of Health Care staff.  Most Zambians live in rural areas. Programs, where implemented, are working, the challenge is to make them accessible to all.

There is still a long standing belief within some sectors of Zambian society, particularly in rural areas, that sexual intercourse with a virgin will cure the HIV. The practice still takes place. Casual sex workers, as in any country, are at a greater risk, but particularly in landlocked Zambia, and notably at the entry exit points with neighbouring countries.

Girls are sometimes denied the opportunity to go to school, the places the family can afford often given in preference to older male siblings.

Goal Zambia finds it important that the football academies it supports include girls and young women and the Dynamic Stars Academy actively encourage them to join. The Blue Bullet Sporting Academy was formed by two women, Carol and Grace and also focuses on promoting education and sports for it's members in the Mtendere compound of Lusaka.

Happy New Year - Every little thing counts

Childhood is a massive part of a person's life and what happens during it plays an enormous part in a person growing up and becoming who they are in adult life. What is most important during that time is love from a carer or parent and the nature of it. A child is very vulnerable and dependant upon this love and the adult the child becomes is shaped by it. Many of us have issues that stem back to our childhood that cause us pain or difficulties later in life and it may be that some parts of our are lives are devoted to reconciling these, especially if ours parents and family are still alive. Many of us are equipped, through our loving formative years, of feelings of self-esteem that enable us to be ourselves in the world and play a part in it. If these years are disrupted or the love distorted, between carer and child, it's consequences can be harmful. If for whatever reason, a child loses their parents or primary carer, a hole is left.

When I first visited Zambia I had recently been reconciled with my parents after being estranged from them for a number of years. There were issues between us that had been faced up to and now we continue to develop our relationship in a positive way. I was very thankful at the time that my parents were still alive to enable me to do this. I grew up in a family that provided fostering care for children who for one reason or another faced challenges in their lives, the causes of which were not their responsibilities. In the UK, where 68 840 children are in care, there are problems in the adoptive system and in the care of the most vulnerable children in our society and there are many people working to alleviate these and endeavour to provide care and love for them. Although the odds appear stacked against them, in any society, every child that has to go into care is important and every little thing counts.



Breakfast at Packachele Primary School

There are up to 760 000 orphans between the ages of 0-17, due to Aids, living in Zambia. 170 000 of these carry HIV. These make up half of the orphan population in the country where 1.4 million children have lost both or one paren for one reason or another. For any child's future, in any country, to be in jeopardy is tragic but in Zambia the consequences of losing a parent are very much a matter of life or death. Not only the AIDS epidemic and it's repercussions, but also the overwelming poverty, mean that vulnerable children have very little chance. These children have lost one or both of the most important people in their lives, often at an age where understanding is difficult and the event most damaging. There is no government network of support for them and the burden on extended family members to care for these children is overwelming. They need love and food. When a mother leaves her child at one of the city rubbish dumps, it is not out of neglect or abandonment but out of love. They know that he or she will be found.



Parental responsibilies

And sometimes chances come along. I worked in two schools in Zambia. The first of these was a school for orphans and those with HIV. It was a deeply personal experience but what I felt most was the overwelming joy on the faces of the 150 pupils, not only at playtime, but in the classroom too. The school was a refuge from without. Outside the school was a world that included neglect, hunger, physical and sexual abuse. Inside the school was love, hope, friendship, food twice a day and often a release from otherwise tragic circumstances. These children were being equipped with the tools they needed to face their lives. They are the lucky ones. The majority of the orphans in Zambia don't get the chance to go to schools such as these because there aren't enough.



Kids of gthe Dynamic Stars Academy

Elsewhere, vulnerable children get lost. Child abuse, both sexual and physical, forced marraiges, child labour and corporal punishment are widespread in Zambia and because of the challenges the country faces, the infrastructure, and skills required to start tackling the problems and protecting vulnerable children are not in place. There is no money to put them in place either. Many Zambians and people from the UK and elsewhere in the world, are trying very hard and successfully to change this in many small ways. Healthcare professionals, teachers and parents are being trained in abuse recognition as are children in what is acceptable behaviour in the home or in society. Tribal leaders and politicians want to know how they can help. The people of Zambia want, ask for and sometimes need help to face these challenges.

For the children who are lost and do not go to school, there are the football pitches. This is often their chance in a country with very few compared with the UK. At the Dynamic Stars Academy, the children are safe from harm. They get fed, they get a limited education, perhaps enough to survive, and they get hope. They get to play football with a real ball and wear a football shirt. They get fun and they get friendship. for some, it will be a losing battle but for others it could be the most important thing in their future lives. The joy and the self esteem they get is amazing.

Without schooling, a vulnerable child is at more risk. Without organisations like the Dynamic Stars Academy, the vulnerability increases more. The costs of this vulnerability in the lives of the young people is Zambia is devastating and that is something i've witnessed. If not early marraige, if not forced labour, then many of the lost orphans, as young as six years old, slip away to live in the sewers of the city at night and a life on the streets by day, addicted to inhaling a mixture of avation fuel and glue, begging for food and supplementing it by scouring the cities rubbish dumps. Few escape this from this fate and most die before adulthood. The football academies and the people who run them are often a child's role model, one that many have lost through the death of a parent.




Children in Chainda

Sometimes I struggle to see how all this helps, in a country far removed from ours and with a culture so vastly different, especially on social and personal levels. I face my own challenges and make mistakes. I try and concentrate on the positives though. The first set of goal nets on the pitch at Chainda compound was one such occasion. I sometimes think about the children nearer to me in this country that need love and support, of which, like those I grew up with, there are too many. My chance came in Zambia though, at a certain point in my life, and I took it. I was filled with inspiration by the people I met and talked to who lived there working towards protecting children, and by the fun the children themselves had. The joy I received in the country from the people and children I met, I wanted to return and share, and to feel inspired to do something in life is, in itself, an important thing.

As we go into the new year, I am still waiting to hear from the UK Customs and Revenue, and hopefully the allocation of a Gift Aid number. From there I hope to start some fundraising events for Goal Zambia. I hope to raise some more money and plan to revisit the country later this year. I hope to have enough money to make a small difference in some of the areas that Goal Zambia hopes to contribute, and then report back. It is hard work to do all these things and I wish I was able to do more but, again, I try to focus on what I can do and what I have already acheived.

It means more than you think, when I log on to this blog, check the number of views and find it has gone up. I take this opportunity to thank all thoses who read it. That in itself helps. My only request at this stage is that, for each of you that reads, could you mention it to somebody else who doesn't who may be interested?

The world can be overwelming for anyone in a thousand ways, but I firmly believe that every little thing helps and there are thousands of ways to do that. There are thousands of problems. That's why I do this and I have fun. Part of this I do for me. I have the self esteem that makes me believe that things can get better and I have been fortunate in that. Things do get better with love and care. If one child in Zambia gets an education and avoids contracting AIDS, if one child experiences the joy of scoring a in a goal with nets, if one extra person reads this blog and tells another then it will do no harm. And if a person who reads this is inspired to do one little thing, in one little place, anywhere in the world, it doesn't really matter what, then it will be worth it even more.

Every little thing helps