Online Reporter
Fadzayi Maposah-Correspondent
I know many young people who are part of the ama2000 (born after the year 2000).
I have written about these young people. I have interacted with them. I work with some of them. I even gave birth to one! They are a special bunch.
One just has to understand and accommodate them. When I look at how things have changed since 2000, it can only show that even the children that were born since then could never be the same as the generations that came before them.
A long time ago, there were no mobile phones. We had landlines. If it rang and you could not get to it on time, you never knew who had been calling. Some would call later and let you know that they had called. With cellphones, you have a record of missed calls and you can call back.
There was also the issue of answering the landline without knowing who was on the other side. My ama2000 cannot relate to this! One would answer the phone and then hear the aunt that they had been avoiding on the other side!
One was never prepared for the shocks that could come just by answering the phone. If one did not want to talk to anyone for any reason, they would just have to avoid answering the phone.
They could allocate the responsibility to someone else who had no issues. If one were alone, there would be no option, but to answer it because it could be other people not the one that you were avoiding.
The landlines were in most instances located in the passage or hallway and there really was not much privacy. The other housemates could hear your part of the conversation. Some homes had two receivers, and if one picked the other receiver, they could actually follow the whole conversation as a spy! Those were the days.
These days the young people can say that such calls had been hacked!
Ama2000 have had online lessons and then proceeded to examinations. Some of us grew up in an era of physical contact for learning purposes. We had to see the teacher in order to learn and the teacher had to see us learn too!
Now it is possible to be in an online class and have your breakfast or just log on and do other things!
It may seem that the ama2000 have it all easy, but my discussions with many young people have shown that one, these young people know no other life than the ones that they are living. They are clueless because they have no experiences about some things. The can only imagine what it was like and at times, even artificial intelligence cannot give them the true picture!
We are living at a time when there is so much information around us. Information that took a long time to get is obtained in a short space of time. Results of surveys are readily available. Not all the information is neither good nor bad. It is about approaching it with a balance so that one is not thrown into the deep end where they can easily drown.
At times although I am on the fifth floor, I am intimidated by the amount of information at my fingertips. Now I simply do the best that I can with the available information.
I attended a meeting last week and that looked at the status of reproductive health in Zimbabwe and beyond.
The good thing is that most of the material is given and internet links are also shared, note taking does not become a burden.
Zimbabwe is now making use of the electronic logistics management (Elmis) to enhance contraceptive, medicines, consumables visibility, tracking and distribution to the very last mile.
Health facilities are tracked and over 1 400 health facilities are linked to the system. Service providers at the health facilities are capacitated to use the electronic system.
Someone maybe asking how important this system is? It is very important. In the past, health facilities spent a lot of time looking up facilities that may have the commodity they required. They would also have to look up stock that was moving fast off their shelves.
It involved making calls and enquiries that were time consuming and reference would be made manually to where the medicines or contraceptives were.
It was time consuming and sometimes even frustrating.
Those who used the old telephone directories can relate to this. One would have to look for the directory first.
Those older than me can remember, Harare had its own volume and other towns and cities were in another volume. You could have the right volume and still have a missing page! That was even worse.
I do not remember the last time I used a book to search for telephone numbers.
The Elmis system also allows one to track how medicines and consumables are used at a particular health facility. Already it means that the responsible authorities can link uptake of particular services with the urgent need for other services. Let me be the devil’s advocate and suggest that within the system, it can be noted that there is a spike in the dispensing of medicines for sexually transmitted infections at a health facility.
Analysis of this information is very critical. One assumption can be that there has been increased health education and members of the public are coming for diagnosis after being empowered with information. It is important that the reasons behind the spike are known and resolved. When information comes in volumes, sifting is important. Go steady on the note taking!
The same should apply even at personal level. There is so much information that is readily available. Sift the information and analysis and use it for your benefit. Have a personal electronic management system!
