Musa Makina
A youth organisation in Lupane has taken a lead in raising awareness to the young ones about the dangers of the fast spreading and deadly Covid-19 pandemic.
This comes at a time many youths have been left idle owing to the Covid-19 induced lockdown regulations imposed by the government early January as a way to curb the spread of the disease.
With youths now forced to spend most of their time in their vicinity following the closure of schools, a lot of misdemeanours have been reported in the district.
Lupane youth for Development Trust programmes officer Zibusiso Moyo told The Zambezi Times that the lockdown has brought many challenges for the youths in Lupane.
“As an organisation we have continued to raise awareness on Covid-19 advising the young people to be exemplary in the society by adhering to the lockdown rules and following safety measures of social distancing, wearing masks properly and washing of hands or sanitising,” Moyo said.
She added: “We have used our Whatsapp chat groups to engage with youths to urge them to be safe and sharing of information through the groups.”
She highlighted a few challenges that the rural youths have encountered so far.
“Youths have challenges with online learning as most of them have no access to the internet and also electricity is a challenge hence you find young ones stranded when it comes to catching up in their studies,” she said.
Recently, the ministry of Health announced the temporary closure of two health facilities in Jotsholo and Lupane after some staff members tested positive for coronavirus.
This, Moyo said has left young women and girls in particular in a quandary.
“The closure of the health centers in Lupane has led to a challenge of young women failing to access sexual reproductive health services. With youths being idle we notice that they try to engage in other activities that include health training where we see them trying to keep healthy by exercising.”
Moyo also said Lupane Dam has also become another potential Covid-19 danger as youths continuously go there for recreational purposes.
“There is a danger of young people flooding the Lupane dam which might lead to the area being a hotspot for Covid-19 and tragedies, for example over the weekend a sad incident happened when a 7 year old boy drowned in the dam.
