Mchinji, March 8: Officers at Mchinji Police Station on Wednesday left their guns and handcuffs, engaged themselves in a motivational talk at Kamuzu Primary School in the district to promote girl education.

Mchinji Police Station community policing officer, Malango Mwasinga, said the station is concerned with the increasing number of pupils dropping out of school either by early marriages or being involved in commercial sex business.

He said most of the girls that are found in the beer halls and living in violent marriages are young primary school drop outs.

“We have organised this motivational talk to make the girls not drop out of school and also encourage boys to refrain from bad behaviors like chamba smoking and other criminal acts,” he said.

This is the first time the police has organised such an event in the district

According to Mchinji Police Officer in Charge, Lexa Chalera, such talks will be held often in the district.

“We will continue holding the talks not only at Kamuzu Primary School, but also other schools. We would like to take the event throughout all the schools in the district,” she said.

She added “We used ladies to talk to the girls and we took advantage of the District Information Officer, who is young but holds a high position in the district, the children were happy to see someone young like her and they were really motivated, we will keep on doing this.”

It is reported that many girls who are found in drinking joints in the district are primary school drop outs, and many of these fall victims to human trafficking as the district is at the boarder between Malawi and Zambia.