The pursuit of happiness / by Patience Sake

T he health of youth can be defined as the main stem of the nation. It follows that youth's stability in society is not to be over- looked. Life is passing but deeds abide . Today I am young, to- morrow I will be old or no more. So , short is the span of life but memories live longer. What good then shall we inherit from our parents, and what good shall we leave behind to show beside our footprints? In the past , according to African culture, a child had many guardians, so that if you were found by an adult doing anything wrong you were questioned or punished there and then. But now a father hearing his son exchange bitter words with the man next door smiles, and says: "As long as he does not do it to me or to his mother he still remains a nice lad.' ' Many other examples of this kind show that the health o f the you n ger generation in Zimbabwe has been crippled from the word go . Where once the rearing of children was the concern of every adult, now it is only confined to family circles. And since society now sets up boundaries between families, hatred has become the dividing line . And these families are further divided into what can be termed broken homes . If young people are to g row up in real health of mind, body and well-being, then the parents must be made aware that they are the designers of youth. Every young person needs security - security in society and most importantly security in the home. If the home fails to lay a proper concrete foundation, then unknowingly it sows the seeds of problems now facing the youth of today. The father who always comes home late and is always trying to find fault here and there soon creates a state of insecurity in his growing children. In the long run these growing people will resort to something else while searching for happiness . Yes, a home is the smile of child- ren; if the child in the home does not wear that smile any more then it ceases to be a home. Nowadays, young people tend to turn to drugs in search of happiness and, since such happi- ness has no substance, they con- tinue to take these drugs that seem to give just a passing ray of ]Oy. The child in an unhappy home is like a cart with two horses WORLD HEALTH 3/89 The pursuit of happiness by Patience Sake from Zimbabwe, 16. She is a student at the Tennyson Hlabagana Secondary School in Bulawayo. "What good shall we leave behind to show beside footprints?" Adolescence is the age of questioning. Photo WHO/f-C. Bruet pulling in different directions. His is a "nowhere world" and all his future plans stand uncertain at the crossroads or else collapse like a deflated balloon. If the home fails to give security and stability to the young generation, the financial position of the young person is crippled. A boy may try all poss- ible means to get money includ- ing, of course, robbery and will finish up in a cell. A girl might misuse her virgin honour in exchange for a few dollars that cannot buy her the security she needs. But in the long or short run she will regret it when the result has become a fatherless baby. The health of youth needs someone to show young people the will to be loyal and who to be loyal to , somebody of good stand- ing and good character. Then the fruits of loyalty will be love and the fruit of love will be obedience . Everybody would like to leave the world a better place than he or she found it. Every child homeless in the street is the product of a broken home, and the fact of being homeless is a reflection on his or her family background. • Young persons everywhere are striving for a sense of security in society and in the family. Photo WHO/M Biihrer 13