Question and Answer Youth Project

Lutembwe day secondary school CRC were accorded the opportunity to present a speech on this year's Day of the African Child. below is the speech written by the Child Rights Club member of Lutembwe Secondary School:

SPEECH BY THE CHILD RIGHTS CLUB SECRETARY DURING THE COMMEMORATION OF THE DAY OF THE AFRICAN CHILD 2026

The Headteacher, Deputy Headteacher, teachers, fellow pupils,
Good morning

Today, as we commemorate the Day of the African Child in advance, I would like to briefly explain how this important day came into existence.

The Day of the African Child is observed every year on 16th June. It was established by the African Union in memory of the brave school children of Soweto in South Africa. On 16th June 1976, thousands of black school children peacefully marched to protest against poor education and the use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in schools. During the protest, many children lost their lives, while others were injured.

Their courage and sacrifice drew the attention of the world to the challenges faced by African children. As a result, the Day of the African Child was created to remember those children and to promote and protect the rights, welfare, and education of all children across Africa.

This year's theme is "Ensuring Universal Access to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Every Child in Africa." The theme reminds us that every child deserves clean water, proper sanitation facilities, and good hygiene to live a healthy and dignified life.

As members of the Child Rights Club, which was formed by the Q&A Youth Lead Initiative, we encourage all pupils to understand their rights and responsibilities and to work together in promoting a safe and healthy environment for every child.

Thank you for listening, and may God bless you all.

Q&A Participates in Provincial Adolescent Health Indaba*

Q&A participated in the Provincial Adolescent Health Indaba held from 28th to 29th May 2026 under the theme: _Ascertaining the Role of Young People in Enhancing Prevention, Ending Epidemics, and Advancing Equitable Health Systems for All_. The event was graced by the Deputy Permanent Secretary, Dr. Lewis Mwape.

with support from Save the Children and Civil Society for Poverty Reduction, Q&A conducted an interface meeting between community leaders and children on child rights and climate justice. The interface brought together children from Lutembwe school, Mchini, Umozi and Magazine community club. community chairpersons, section chair men and ministry of community Development and Social Services. two local CSO’s attended the meeting Enlighten Ability an organization working with people with disabilities and lizu community network.

the activity took place on the 7th of May 2025 in Mchini community church.

with support from Save the Children International and civil society for poverty reduction &A conducted an engagement meeting with community leaders and children on child rights and climate justice. children from muchini community, Magazine and Umodzi community were present in the meeting. community leaders from Umodzi and Mchini also attended the meeting.
the discussion highlighted children’s rights linking to climate justice and how important it is for children to engage community leaders on issues of climate crisis. children expressed their concerns on how climate change has affected their safety and education and has called upon leaders to take climate and Environmental impact into consideration of their rights.

On the 10th of April, Zambia Disability Network an organization supported by Save the Children conducted a training on Disability Inclusion to Q&A team including stakeholders that work closely with the Q&A. the team includes community leaders, government stakeholders and local CSO's.
Disability Inclusion is one of the SCI-SIDA CSO mandatory component in program design. to make it an achievable goal, the training was done so that the team can understand how to integrate Disability Inclusion and rights of youths and children with disabilities

the training also promoted Networking with other Organizations promoting Disability Inclusion in their programming.

With support from Save the Children and CivilSocietyforPovertyReduction, Q and A conducted a kick-off meeting on 25th MarchinChipataEasternProvince, gathering stakeholders from line ministries, education, health, community development, and social welfare.

Presentations from Q and A were done. The first presentation was on the project overview. The second presentation was on the new project, covering context analysis, catchment area, objectives, and outcomes. Additionally, the child department presented on the Children's Code Act. Later, there was a session on commitments made by children , government stakeholders, community leaders, and development committees chairpersons and local CSO's

Lastly, recommendations were shared, expectations were read out, and the host organisation, Civil Society for Poverty Reduction, closed the meeting. With remarks

happy youth youth day