John Ndlovu
Drug and substance abuse coupled with pre-marital sexual activities have been dogging the limelight albeit affecting the future of tomorrow, our youths.
Emulating foreign adopted lifestyles that cause delinquency, drugs and substance abuse, moral decadence has caused loss of focus, direction and life’s purpose in many a youths across the country’s divide.
Many Civic Society groupings have continuously lobbed for ways of curtailing this ticking time bomb and results do not seem promising.
Many Non Governmental Organizations as well as Christian Denominations have tried everything possible to try and bring the downwards spiraling situation under control. One of these is the Jesus For Africa Evangelistic Ministries (JFAEM) an non-denominational church ministry under the tutelage of Evangelists Paul and Winnie Saungweme who initiated the boot camps with an aim of driving youths away from engaging in illicit behaviors such as drug abuse as well as engaging in pre-marital sex which has been issues of concern in present day. The initiative has catered for youths in the City of Kwekwe and the Midlands Province.
Zim GBC News crew spoke to the Organization’s Public Relations Officer Edson Chirowodza who explained that the boot camps have been brought in to churn out Evangelistic youths and drive them away from bad behaviors.
“The boot camps were created under the aim of grooming evangelists targeting demographics of people from 20 years to about 60 years. This plays an important role in curbing illicit behaviors brewing out from youths.”
Chirowodza also commended unwavering support received in this initiative which has brought out youths with good moral values.
”The target audience groups have received the initiative positively as it is helping the youths to steer away from drug abuse and youthful delinquencies which includes premarital sex, unwanted pregnancies and early marriages.”He added
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Zimbabwe is rated as one of the countries with highest rates of unplanned pregnancies in the sub-Saharan Africa, with over 20% of such pregnancies. Drug and substance abuse is another subject of concern in Zimbabwe as this has contributed to numerous health problems due to over dosage of drugs such marijuana, alcohol and synthetic drugs like crystal meth.
A boot camp refers to a rigorous intense training program that is typically designed to improve physical fitness or to develop specific skills. This was mainly adopted by military groups.