Trying to hide pregnancy is tantamount to climbing a tree on your back. To be quite frank, it is impossible. This thought came to mind early this week when my editor spoke about the dangers street children are facing on a daily basis.
These children sleep under bridges, cover themselves with dirty and stinking blankets, they eat leftovers, they fight for stinking dustbins, smoke Nyaope, wear tattered clothes, and to them, water is a precious resource that should never be used for bathing, but preserved for drinking.
In most townships, including Tembisa, these children have disappeared, lured by the glittering lights of big cities like Johannesburg, where poverty and the harsh realities of life are hidden behind false promises of a land of milk and honey. But take a good look at the township, there are still some street children seen roaming the streets of Olifantsfontein and Tswelopele. The problem is being hidden, transferred or relocated.
The essence of this article is not to dehumanise those pour souls out in the cold. Rather, it is to look at ways to help those who are on the verge of jumping into the big pot of poverty and destruction.
Like character, you cannot hide the symptoms that are killing our new generation right in front of our eyes. Like any other township in Gauteng, youngsters in Tembisa are getting addicted to drugs like Nyaope and alcohol. They bunk school and sit on street corners, taking drugs and alcohol in full view of the public. Some help taxi drivers call for passengers, to get more money for drugs.
Because of drugs, they steal whatever they can lay their hands on at home. The main cause of this dreadful situation is the result of Aids-related diseases, where many children have lost their parents to the disease. Others have run away from home because of abusive parents.
As parents, we should help the government by identifying symptoms like bunking school, changing behaviour or coming home late.
We must save the new generation from becoming drug addicts with no future at all.
