SOLUTION PATH

After the heated discussion I have had with my friends concerning my previous article: YOUNG AND PREGNANT, listening to what they had to say concerning the issue, I decided to call a shift from targeted intervention to a more far reaching strategy that builds girls human capital, helping them make decisions about their lives and offers them real opportunities so that motherhood is not seen as their only destiny. When a young teenager gets pregnant, it also means they are less likely to finish schooling making it even harder to get a job and break the cycle of poverty that many young mothers in the country face.                                                                                                                                     Reducing its rate to some extent reciprocates to a reduced poverty level which means we are reducing even more future unwanted pregnancies because poverty is a cause. If so, soon we will be living in a responsible world with responsible teens.

Young people have the right to live healthy lives. Providing them with honest age-appropriate comprehensive sexual health education is a key point in helping them take personal responsibility for their health and wellbeing. Providing young people with skills and tools to make healthy decisions on sex and relationships is far more effective than denying them information and simply telling them not to have sex.

Young people need sex education policies that respect their autonomy and includes all of the necessary information and not programs that deny them important and relevant information.         Maybe I am crazy, but you will agree with me that preaching abstinence all while may not be the only way.

I came to realize that one of the sure ways of reaching perfection is if you know poor. At times I feel that we lose some girls and boys that we could as well rescue. The fact that boys and girls are already involving themselves in immoral acts, especially this season does not justify them being termed outcast. We should learn to accept the fact and let them realize their actions. We should make them part of the community. Let us not be too tough as by  this we will even lose more.

My plea is to my dear teen brothers and sisters. Let us refrain from immoral behavior. Most of us stumble and fall dead because we did not make an effort over small stumbling blocks we meet in life. Let us not fall to bargain basement priced things.                                                                                    It is so worthwhile knowing that nobody is using you.                          

 My fellow girls; let us stand and face reality. It’s time we stop satisfying people’s biological feelings and soar to getting what is best for us. We are not some sort  of  doormat.                                                                

 I SAY NO! DO YOU?

YOUNG AND PREGNANT

TEENAGE PREGNANCIES

Much debate in our society has been around teenage pregnancies and the teens are now an endangered species. I believe that the youths are the future of this country, we need to protect and guide them on how to become responsible adults, not forgetting to help them reach their adulthood. Who is a teenager? Somebody might ask. A person aged between 13 and 19. It would be so unfortunate to meet such young of an age with a swollen potbelly in the name of being pregnant.  Afather? One that doesn`t beget sweet humor to my ears.

The rate of teenage pregnancies is on the increase, an indication of the fact that we have failed to stop this scourge. We must bring together all sectors of the community to this effort. Everyone has a roll to play. Surprisingly, everybody wants to preach NO TO SEX and this monotony has taken its toll. I am a believer of this too, NO TO SEX and I know that the best way is just to abstain. But take a moment, see how threats such as diseases, being un-Godly and even unwanted pregnancy itself seems to have lost meaning to teens. It is time we try just more than this. We must take time and first know the causes before we come up with solutions. Otherwise we are fast becoming irrelevant.

Some of the causes we know of include; 

Adventure and fun: most teens have this feeling of wanting to find out the sex feeling. During counseling, many often forget to address this. The inner me fighting the body I am. Teach me how I can calm my own feelings down. I cry for sex education. Help us understand our feelings. Stop telling us not to have them, because already we do.

Poverty: do not underrate how pangs of poverty can take someone. We should be more considerate before pointing fingers at some immoral behaviors. I may not have a solution to this, but still guidance and counselling will do. Parents need to take up responsibility and make their children feel satisfied at their level. Poverty is a relative word. Let the teens understand there is better in the future and help then realize it. 

Peer pressure: I do not want to talk about this anymore. Stop telling your children to not keep certain friends. Instead, make that friend a person you would wish your child to have around.

Societal causes: rape, molestation, defilement, child trafficking, drug and substance abuse, to mention but a few, let us just follow the law.  Let justice take its cause otherwise we can never solve this.

Now that there is no schooling, we all need to understand the risks involved and do something. COVID 19 should not be the reason for our girls to become mothers at a very tender age.

By preventing teenage pregnancies, we can significantly improve other more serious social problems. It should not hold the community at ransom as it is at the moment.

ICE CREAM

During my high school days, I made a point to eat ice cream as often as possible. A two scoop minimum- no fat free, low fat, fro yo- just the full fat, calorie- laden, scrumptious, velvety kind of ice cream. I had never thought of myself as having a weight problem. I felt secure in my own right. I felt beautiful and did not need anyone to verify that.

But then I could hear stories allover of how people taking high levels of calories have weird body shapes, and I know you too are thinking the same. I wished that ice cream would be considered the sustenance of life and not a guilty pleasure.

Well, ice cream is merely an analogy of living life to the fullest, for indulging yourself simply because you are fabulous, just as you are. This means eating that piece of cake because you want to, and not feeling the guilt of calories and fat grams or the pressure of the society and remain at less- than –healthy -weight because “thin-is-in.

It means feeling secure in your own skin. Embracing your luscious curves, and seeing yourself as the pretty lady that you are, no matter what size of jeans you wear. What could be more delicious that that? Self-confidence is key. Seize the moment. Remember all those people on the titanic who waved off the dessert cart.