adminof irresponsibility on the part of some people. Young people need to realise that they too can play a part in making sure that they organise to preserve lives.
This very paper last Saturday carried a headline which read, “Accident wipes out family”.
The headline was in reference to the sudden loss of the lives of three members of the Mumango family of Warren Park who were hit by a car on their way from Independence Day celebrations. What pains hearts even more is that it is alleged that the three were all hit at a pedestrian crossing of the zebra variety. May their souls rest in peace!
The Tuesday April 23, the ZBC News Hour Bulletin had a story of two boys from Harare South who drowned in pits left behind by sand poachers.
The two boys intended to take a swim which unfortunately resulted in the sad loss of their life. We pray that their families will be consoled and that they rest in peace.
As we mourn the sad loss of such young lives taken away prematurely from us, we should be reminded to take action in helping avoid similar accidents from happening.
Indeed, teens have a role to play and they can play a leading role in ensuring that such grim events do not continuously catch us unawares again.
We surely cannot evade death eternally but it is also upon young people to ensure that lives are not lost due to avoidable reasons that arise mainly out of neglect and human reckless behaviour.
You can begin to build and direct your communities towards the change which will ensure that lives are preserved and that we educate one another on how to be safer while going around daily routines.
All you need to do is to organise yourself and you will see such avoidable accidents reducing leading to the preservation of lives.
Here are some of the activities that teens can engage in helping preserve lives:
1) Start Traffic Safety Clubs
Every school should have a traffic safety club which teaches students to be safe on the roads.
The club should not only limit its activities to group members but they can and should widen the net to include all students and even reach out to their surrounding communities so that they educate their families and road users.
The loss of life could be greatly reduced when people are always reminded of road rules and they adhere to them.
School traffic clubs could be the place from which citizens will begin to appreciate their traffic safety responsibilities.
Clubs could even be more proactive by teaching provisional driving lessons to eligible students, road traffic awareness campaigns and even performing citizen journalism by reporting all who violate road rules and regulations so that they meet the full wrath of the law.
2) Engage in Environmental Rehabilitation Programmes
There is so much environmental degradation taking place because of unregulated economic activities, hazardous to both humans and the environment.
Sand poachers, mineral panners and firewood vendors often leave the environment bleeding because of their irresponsible hunt for the greenback.
Students can organise to rehabilitate the degraded environment so that they reduce the possibility of accidents due to environmental hazards.
You can organise to fill all open pits and gullies to avoid the risk of people, especially children, falling into them. Such programmes could also raise environmental awareness on issues like veld fires, river siltation and many other environmental concerns.
3) Health and Life Skills Clubs
While deaths due to accidents and physical hazards are easily noticeable we have witnessed another social ill that is causing both moral and physical death especially to teens.
Seriously when a chief executive officer of a company admits to dating a Grade 7 girl, then there is need for prompt serious interventions.
Schools cannot afford delaying the provision of life skills education and appropriate comprehensive sexual education when we are faced with such alarming social ills that threaten to tear our families apart.
Health and Life Skills Clubs should, however, have trained elders who ensure that teens do not give each other wrong information and mislead each other.
Let us ensure a sexually responsible generation now which is capable of making wise decisions about their life and health.
Remember you all can play a part in ensuring the preservation of life!
Till next week, God bless you all.
Ciao…
The writer is a motivational teacher.
Online Reporter