“Let us teach our children with love and compassion,
together we can build a nation.”
Firstly, let us create environments that foster love and affection for each child on the streets who comes to our centres. We should establish drop-in centres tailored to different age groups, where we can instil love in these children. Our feeding centres should open their doors to all children, regardless of whether we know their families or not. Additionally, we need to establish more financially accessible Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres in communities. Intensive monitoring of victim support centres is crucial, and we should implement discipline for children while they are still young “Ugotywa usemtsha.” Prevention is better than cure. By focusing on the younger generation and providing them with the best resources and care now, we can create a healthier society with strong norms and values in the next 20 years.
The consequence of this is generational trauma. A cycle of violence, sexual abuse, substance abuse, and moral degeneration of society will be perpetuated. To address this, we need to consider the future of these children in 20 years. We must ask ourselves: What will become of them? These children have not experienced love and have had to adapt to their harsh environments (nature versus nurture). As a result, for survival, they resort to learning the “art of the street” which pedals more violence and abuse, inevitably grooming them into perpetrators. From victim to perpetrator… What a trap!
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June 2023 | Collective Action Magazine
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