Having been able to return to the place where I was born and brought up and did most of my education, I could not help noticing that things are not the same as they were as I was growing up. The life style has changed, the general behaviour has changed, so many things have changed. I remember when we were young going to school we used to walk a long distance to school even on a cold or rainy day but we still persevered because most of us had dreams to grow up and do something with our lives. I remember the teacher asking the regular question "what would you like to be when you grow up?" All sorts of answers would pop up, one would say, "when I grow up I want to be a pilot", another "I want to be a doctor", another "I want to be a lawyer" and so on and so forth. As we progressed in classes, others fell out due to so many reasons but some continued on. Being a mixed school the competition between boys and girls in class was always high and this was a source of discouragement to most of the gilrs in class and a reason to work even harder to a few girls.
Academic competition was not the only challenge that the girl child would face in school, as the girl grew and was transforming into a lady, many more challenges started to pop up. One of the major challenges was to stay focussed on studies despite the different forces of peer pressure pulling you in all directions.
Today, I notice that the peer presssure is even worse than during my time when I was a student. In addittion to the challenges I met, advanced technology and way of life, has led to girls trying to find a way to fit in the society they are exposed to. Look at this scenario, a child complains that all her coleagues in class have mobile phones and they were trendy clothes the ones that are "on the market". If the parent is able to provide all these the child will fill that they fit into their "society", whilst the child whose parents can not manage to provide these, will feel thet they are left out. It is when a girl child reaches this point of feeling "left out", that they try to find ways to "fit in". Usually the ways that are seen as solutions have also led to the downfall of many girls, most of them failing to perform well in school, hence not being able to proceed with secondary or tertiary education, early and life threatening pregnancies, even contarction of diseases such as HIV/AIDS.
How can we help our girl child then? Shall we just sit and watch both young (Adolescent) and old men (sugar daddies) abuse these young girls in return for the girls to obtain "status" that is fitting in the society? What can we do to encourage the girls so that they realize the potential they have and that short term solutions are not the answer for a better future? How can we encourage our young girls today to focus on their studies and work to develop their talents so that they can be the leaders of tomorrow?
These are the questions that we must answer if we want to save our society. With the prevalence of HIV and AIDS in our society, there is a need to support our growing youth both young girls and boys and direct them to the right paths. Every parent was once a child and every grown up has gone through childhood and we know the challenges that we face as a youth. Let us therefore take our position in the society to help the growing youth, both the girl child and the boy child and direct them so that they do not repeat the same mistakes we made. Men respect the girl child and help her to get a future she deserves, a better education, a better training, and a better life in the future. And to you young girls, stop looking at short term solutions to your problems and start thinking of long term plans. Why depend on handouts when you can work hard yourselves in your studies and or training and be able to even make more money. Why should you toss a whole future ahead of you for a short term solution while you can work patiently towards your goals in life?
How many of us answered the teachers regular question "what would you like to be when you grow up" and are so ashamed to repeat what we said we wanted to be when we grow up to ourselves because we have not made it? I know there are many circumstances that could have made us not achieve what we wanted in life not by choice, but if we have all the opportunities to make a better future for ourselves, lets go for it, work hard, achieve your best and do not let anyone decieve you with short term plans of becoming rich and making quick money while you can work towards your future and be the source of the money.
This is to all of you who know, love and care for the Malawian girl child. There is a bright future in every child, let us help them achieve it!
Academic competition was not the only challenge that the girl child would face in school, as the girl grew and was transforming into a lady, many more challenges started to pop up. One of the major challenges was to stay focussed on studies despite the different forces of peer pressure pulling you in all directions.
Today, I notice that the peer presssure is even worse than during my time when I was a student. In addittion to the challenges I met, advanced technology and way of life, has led to girls trying to find a way to fit in the society they are exposed to. Look at this scenario, a child complains that all her coleagues in class have mobile phones and they were trendy clothes the ones that are "on the market". If the parent is able to provide all these the child will fill that they fit into their "society", whilst the child whose parents can not manage to provide these, will feel thet they are left out. It is when a girl child reaches this point of feeling "left out", that they try to find ways to "fit in". Usually the ways that are seen as solutions have also led to the downfall of many girls, most of them failing to perform well in school, hence not being able to proceed with secondary or tertiary education, early and life threatening pregnancies, even contarction of diseases such as HIV/AIDS.
How can we help our girl child then? Shall we just sit and watch both young (Adolescent) and old men (sugar daddies) abuse these young girls in return for the girls to obtain "status" that is fitting in the society? What can we do to encourage the girls so that they realize the potential they have and that short term solutions are not the answer for a better future? How can we encourage our young girls today to focus on their studies and work to develop their talents so that they can be the leaders of tomorrow?
These are the questions that we must answer if we want to save our society. With the prevalence of HIV and AIDS in our society, there is a need to support our growing youth both young girls and boys and direct them to the right paths. Every parent was once a child and every grown up has gone through childhood and we know the challenges that we face as a youth. Let us therefore take our position in the society to help the growing youth, both the girl child and the boy child and direct them so that they do not repeat the same mistakes we made. Men respect the girl child and help her to get a future she deserves, a better education, a better training, and a better life in the future. And to you young girls, stop looking at short term solutions to your problems and start thinking of long term plans. Why depend on handouts when you can work hard yourselves in your studies and or training and be able to even make more money. Why should you toss a whole future ahead of you for a short term solution while you can work patiently towards your goals in life?
How many of us answered the teachers regular question "what would you like to be when you grow up" and are so ashamed to repeat what we said we wanted to be when we grow up to ourselves because we have not made it? I know there are many circumstances that could have made us not achieve what we wanted in life not by choice, but if we have all the opportunities to make a better future for ourselves, lets go for it, work hard, achieve your best and do not let anyone decieve you with short term plans of becoming rich and making quick money while you can work towards your future and be the source of the money.
This is to all of you who know, love and care for the Malawian girl child. There is a bright future in every child, let us help them achieve it!
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