Join forces to protect children's future

Clive Jacobs, Lavender Hill community leader

The time has come for us as a community to forge a union in order to save our community's children, learners, and even those who have made street corners their haven.

They spend most of their day inside what should be the most important place, home, but they fear it the most, as love and support are not found there. All corners of the streets and flats in these once well-loved communities of Greater Lavender Hill, Retreat, and Steenberg are sadly occupied by young unemployed men and women, in search of something they, the youth, hardly know what it is.

As an activist, I feel helpless, hopeless, and out of potential advice for them.

The negativity in our homes affects our scholars and even school leaders. Attending school is quickly becoming a no-go zone for many children. It has become clear that those who attend school are only doing so to pass the time. Most of the children are as unhappy at school as they are at home.

I understand why they feel that the world seems against them; can you blame them for feeling this way? As the people who really believe and hope will walk the walk with them have now become less and less interested in the children, failing them due to confusion.

Some parents do not fight hard enough to reach out to their boy children to save them from gang recruitment and give up, fearing the tragedy that can happen to them or their kids.

Not enough is being done to save our children.

They feel the world is against them, and the question is, can you really blame them for thinking like that?

Everything has changed and drastically needs improvement. Soon, we will have no youth to carry on and become leaders, athletes, fathers, and mothers.

Our children have no direction; they are lost and risk losing their ultimate identity and lives.

There is hope to save the lost souls. Our children need backbones, morale-boosting heroes, and motivation to inspire them.

I am prepared, as I was and always will be, to help. Money doesn't heal, nor does it make you too tired to help a child. There are no excuses not to rise and support a boy and girl child.