adminSekuru Friday Chisanyu
THE dramatic increase in the number of STI and HIV/AIDS cases among school children is very worrying and shocking; traditionalists are concerned.
This trend is disturbing as it touches the nerve centre of our future generation. This younger generation is there to continue our legacy and pride as a nation but it is now under threat from the devastating effects of the HIV/AIDS scourge.
Traditional medical health practitioners are at the receiving end of dealing with the ever increasing cases of STIs among the school going children because most of them do not have the courage to visit hospitals and clinics to seek treatment.
My greatest concern is that these children avoid seeking medical treatment from health institutions despite our advice. In most cases, the school children consult traditional medical practitioners when the STIs are at an advanced stage, this may cause complications such as barrenness.
The parents of course, may not even be aware that their kids are sexually active.
The hardest hit by all sorts of STIs are teenage girls although a sizeable number of boys are also affected.
What gives me sleepless nights is that these school children are actually more afraid of pregnancy than getting infected with HIV.
A cocktail of factors contribute towards this worrying trend but it starts right at the schools.
The institutions of learning are now laxy and not as strict as they used to be. During our times, it was a taboo to miss or to be late for school.
It looks like schools are now more concerned with lining their pockets with school fees rather than the welfare of the students. I also lay the blame on communities since elderly people are more concerned about their own children while ignoring the rest.
Communities no longer care about “everyone’s child”. In the past decades, parents would instil discipline in a child with unbecoming behaviour, whether that kid was their biological one or not. What mattered was maintaining discipline and morality in the community.
All this has gone with the times, communities have become fields of gossip instead of concentrating on meaningful things such as teaching children on important things in life.
I also partly blame members of our police force. Back then, they would question children milling around shopping malls, recreational parks and in town during school hours while wearing school uniforms.
Now, officers just go about their business without blinking an eye and the bunking school children continue to bunk school. There is need for police to be on the lookout for wayward children and help parents to instil discipline.
This is will help fight the spreading of diseases.
Another heart retching fact is that adults are preying on innocent children and infecting them with deadly diseases. During consultations with a number of teenagers, l have since established that there are adults who are having unprotected sex with them. The adults waylay the kids on their way from school before enticing them to sleep in hotels and lodges for a fee.
Who will then police the police? I say so because these adults are supposed to be on the lookout for the children but instead they are the ones leading in the abuse. Teenagers are vulnerable to such abuses due to their tender age.
Peer pressure is also landing some school children in risky sexual activities. There is competition with fellow schoolmates with regards to the acquisition of material things such as phones, iPads and clothes.
This subject drags us back to the need to adhere to our traditional morals and values. Adoption of Western values will not help us, imagine that mothers have literally surrendered the upbringing of their children to housemaids. This is not proper motherhood.
Our aunties (tete) back in the day, used to do random virginity tests on their nieces while uncles (sekurus) did the same on their nephews. This kept the children in check and as a result, cases of teenage pregnancies were very rare. Why have we abandoned such cultures?
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