Tue, Aug 31, 2010

Editor: the newspaper headline reads: “Male prisons population close to 400”. Still others are on remand waiting to answer charges for various crimes. Statistics at the Mental Health Centre indicate that 167 males are patients, of this amount, approximately 80-90 of the males are drug addicted with ages ranging between 16-55 years.{{more}}

Imagine what these statistics represent in a small country like ours. We are left with lots of single parent families and the void left when the father figure and potential father figures are taken out by the enemy. Mothers will then have to play the all important roles of both fathers and mothers single handedly. She’s now leader, director, breadwinner, child/children rearer, teacher, counsellor etc. She’s now taking on some special roles that were never ordained by God for her from the beginning. This is an abnormality which we have come to accept in society. However, this is the weak link in the chain that the enemy is using to break our families. The deceiver and the father of lies have led many to believe that single parenting is just another type of family structure. It is in fact an abnormality in the family structure.

The increasingly young ages at which our males are becoming drug addicts and offenders, crime offenders and even vagrants on the streets set an alarming pattern. What is going to happen in society when the older men folk have died? Where will we find our young and strong men? Are our plans and policies as Church leaders, politicians and other NGO’s geared at retrieving and saving our males?

Our sole Mental Health Institution is overwhelmed with drug addicts. Yet it seems that we do not have proper plans and policies geared towards tackling this growing problem. The time has come when there’s a need for a drug rehabilitation centre and a few half way houses placed strategically around the country. Young men who are actually living in the Mental Health Centre for instance and on the streets can have their hopes revived. Proper plans and policies put in place can actually retrain minds and physical skills, build self esteem and morale and assist these men to be reintegrated back into society. The church can also take up its part in establishing the moral and spiritual aspects of men. They can assist these men in recognizing and fulfilling God’s divine plan for their lives. Non-Governmental organizations must also be willing to render their technical support.

For the individuals themselves, come let us reason together saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow, though they be red as Crimson they shall be like wool. (Isaiah 1:48)

Servants of the Lord.