Ask any young person when their parents sat them down and talked to them about sex and dating, and I bet you will get uncomfortable cringes. This is sadly the case for wasee wengi who are inquisitive but do not get the answers needed. With the era of Google and Wikipedia, they are religiously consulted regardless of the lies, myths and half truths.
Kevin Njuki, 22, a student at University of Nairobi recalls how his mother talked to him as he was growing up.
“My mother says, take care of yourself, but she is not specific from what. However, I got that she meant nicheki the guys I hang out with as well as the chick I had”.
Njuki as well as Barasa Wafula, his roommate, agree that these talks with parents are not directed towards a particular issue and are frequently punctuated with weird silences and assumption that the young person will learn in school. It also feels like a taboo subject and that that they ought to get answers elsewhere.
Beside the internet, peers and the media are other sources of information and answers. This at times predisposes young people to fallacies and uongo mob leaving one more confused than how they were in the beginning. It further explains the risks as a youth take; learning the bitter truth through nasty experiences, unwanted pregnancies, STIs and at times HIV/AIDS.
Youths need to G-FAHAMISHA on matters of reproductive health, relationships and a lot more. Parents as well as young people are important elements in this knowledge process. There is need for these truths to be spoken, shared and to be readily available for this Google generation. Embarrassment is bound to cloud these conversations but it is better to prevent a leak than to have an entire ship sinking. I challenge you to open up your communication channels with your parents and if you are a parent reading this, why not start it?
No comments:
Post a Comment