A Call for Program Audits in Zambia: Confronting the Teenage Pregnancy Crisis in Chadiza

Zambia is facing a silent crisis, and Chadiza District has become a stark example of the urgency to act. Between January and June 2025, 837 girls were recorded pregnant in Chadiza alone. These are only the cases that reached health facilities—many more likely went unreported, especially in rural setups where access to healthcare is limited.

Among these, 145 were school-going girls, yet only 26 managed to return to school after giving birth. The rest are at risk of being lost to early marriage, poverty, and lifelong socioeconomic challenges. This is not just a local tragedy—it is a national alarm.

At My Helping Hand Foundation, we believe this calls for more than isolated interventions. It calls for accountability, coordination, and urgency. We are therefore making a strong call for program and project audits among NGOs and stakeholders working in adolescent health and education. Too often, well-meaning programs operate in silos, leading to duplication in some areas and neglect in others. By auditing and harmonizing these initiatives, we can identify what is working, bridge the gaps, and build a collective response that reduces teenage pregnancies and protects the future of our girls.

Teenage pregnancy is not only a health challenge—it is a developmental crisis. It disrupts education, fuels poverty cycles, and undermines Zambia's progress toward gender equality and sustainable development.

As My Helping Hand Foundation, we are committed to working with partners—government, civil society, churches, and community leaders—to create a unified strategy that ensures prevention, supports reintegration into education, and restores hope to the affected girls.

The numbers from Chadiza are a wake-up call. If a single district can record such devastating figures in just six months, what does this say about the national picture? The time for complacency is over. The future of our daughters and our nation depends on the action we take today.