First Lady Esther Lungu calls for scaling up of women empowerment programmes

First Lady Esther Lungu has called for scaling up of women empowerment programmes in the country.
Mrs Lungu says women are the backbone of families and need to be equipped to manage families and household economies.
Speaking when she addressed government and party officials in Chipata, the First Lady says she is committed to ensuring that women in the country excel so that they can contribute to national economic development.
And the First Lady later called on Paramount Chief Mpezeni of the Ngoni people at Feni Palace where she held private talks.
Mrs Lungu also toured Mwami Adventist Hospital where she commended health workers for striving to provide health care services to people under difficult circumstances.
She was however, disturbed when she found scores of pregnant teenagers and teenage mothers at the SDA run hospital.
Mrs Lungu who called for a stop to early marriages said the girls were too young to be married and have children.
And Hospital Administrator Enoch Chitalawa said the hospital has a catchment area of 90, 000 and appealed for increased funding and improved supply of essential drugs.
Meanwhile the first lady visited Luphazi leprosarium where she donated 5,000 Kwacha to women clubs and foodstuffs to 26 vulnerable people and 31 bags of maize seeds donated by MRI.
The First Lady also visited orphaned children at the SOS children’s village where she was reunited with Hilda and Rhoda, the twins she last saw a year ago on a ministers’ spouses’ visit.