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04 October, 2021

MHPSS FORUM GHANZI – 22.09.21

OPENING CEREMONY: VOICE OF A CHILD

 

MISS TLHABOLOGO KODIE: Children’s Consultative Forum Ghanzi Chairperson

 

Imagine jumping out of the skydiving plane only to find out that your parachute does not work. What memories would flash before you? Imagine the parachute opened, how differently would you act when you landed?

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, my name is Tlhabologo Kodie, the Chairperson of Ghanzi Children’s Consultative Forum. I will try not to talk long; they say its best to leave your audience before your audience leaves you.

 

Today is a very remarkable and important day for the children of Ghanzi as it gives us hope that our worrying issues are coming to an end. We have poor parenting. Our first worrying issue that is the devil of all is poor parenting in Ghanzi. It may be the parent not participating in the child’s school work or neglecting them, both of which are the same to me. This exposes the child to the predators of life. If you take a walk to Spar right now you will find children loitering and begging for money.

 

It is not always the case of orphanhood because it turns out that most of these street kids have parents or guardians who have neglected them. These guardians can often be found in Shebeen or Bars, because they do not appreciate the essence of having a child. This often leaves the children hungry or homeless, which contributes to the way children may handle their future issues. In the future the child may have trust issues which may ruin the relations with the people around them. This tends to make them anti-social, as we call them nowadays.

 

This is a contribution to the increase in the downfall of good mental health. A solution to this problem is to firstly educate the public of Ghanzi, on the importance of taking care of children and the consequences of not doing so. Enforcing the law should be a second option because by then the parents will be more aware of the laws that force them to take care of children. We need change as fast as possible in Ghanzi because it is becoming worse by the day.

 

Another worrying issue is bullying. There are different types of bullying, but the most popular one is done at school. This is done by some students who envy what another child has. As a victim of bullying, I know that when it is done repeatedly it shuts down a child’s confidence, leading to low self esteem. This causes a child to end up taking part in the usage of drugs and alcohol.

 

Sometimes all it takes is to listen to children’s problems as parents. This is a platform that I am using to reach out to every parent that you should engage and listen to your child’s worries.

 

The other problem we face is teenage pregnancy. One of the songs that are recently playing in our playlist in Ghanzi is teenage pregnancy. This is when a child under the age of eighteen has a foetus growing in their womb. The issue itself causes post natal depression, together with stress that the teen mother is facing. To top that, we do not have counseling offered to the teen mother; it is always us a society putting pressure on the teen. This makes a teen slowly isolate themselves from the society in order to avoid interaction with other people. During isolation the teen may develop suicide thoughts, which usually leads to backstreet abortion.

 

A child’s voice is crying out loud saying provide counselling for teen mothers; improve management conditions to take care of these cases urgently. Parents should also normalize having sex talks with their children in order to prepare the child for the effects of sexual intercourse.

 

Lastly but not least we have child abuse. We are not only talking about sexual abuse but we include emotional abuse. As parents you tend to try and familiarize the generation of nowadays with the past by using words that are harmful to our mental health. The most common abuse in Ghanzi is sexual abuse. It is not always a stranger but also the people close to us whom we call family. We have Section 25 of the Children’s Act 2009, which protects the child who is sexually abused or exploited, which not everyone is familiar with in Ghanzi. Sexual abuse on a child causes mental damage to the child’s mind as there will also be society rejecting and shaming the child. To correct this we need and request a platform that children can use to express themselves. We need platforms, we want action to be taken urgently. We also want to see the results coming from these platforms which we use to acquire urgent help and attention. I hope that my voice will be heard and my cry will be comforted. This is a voice for the children of Ghanzi District which needs all attention and needs to be attended with immediate effect, thank you.