For example, due to poverty, many parents especially in villages lack even the slightest capacity of taking their children to school. Despite the fact that there is free elementary education in Uganda, many parents in villages still fail to send their offspring to school because they cannot afford money for books and other school needs and in some instances, schools are far away from their residences.
Yet due to ignorance, a “rich” Ugandan who does not appreciate the value of education also bothers not sending his/her children to school. Another illustration, which clearly exhibits how ignorance and poverty has demolished the lives of many Ugandans, is that because of lack of education and or employment, most girls, especially in cities like Kampala, have resorted to selling their bodies in order to earn some money. And yet those who seek employment are normally subjected to “carpet” interviews. This has also accelerated the spread of the AIDS pandemic.
The Millennium Development Goals seek to address the conditions that make people live a lifeless life before the year 2015 to enable every person to enjoy happiness and prosperity.
Therefore, working towards achieving them (the Millennium Development Goals) will be the only “Jesus Christ” to save Uganda in particular and the world at large from the extremities of the hither to mentioned pains. Hence, when a golden question like, “What I or the youth in my country can do to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals” is directed to me, a forest of ideas linger in my mind. Below is some simple magic that I or the youth in Uganda have to apply to make full achievement of the Millennium Development Goals a reality.
Ugandan youths, we should learn that each one of us has a God given talent. Whether you are white, black, blue, yellow or green, you have it. Whether you are educated or not, you have it. Seek to develop it and good life will become mere common sense. Sit on it and you will embrace the love and sweetness of poverty for the rest of your life. Yet if we want to make achievement of the Millennium Development Goals a reality, we should work towards developing our talents so that we can enjoy the very best out of them. Remember, this is the initial capital God invested in us and many people both locally and abroad have used their talents to improve their lives and the lives of many other people. We should work, therefore, towards using our talents to earn a living, to pay fees for our children and also afford many other good things. This means that our talents can help us bury poverty, eradicate illiteracy, enjoy good health and respect among many other things.
More so, talent and skill development must be made a major ingredient in the Ugandan education system. This majority calls for vocationalisation of the school curriculum from the elementary level to the highest levels of education. This will enable even the school dropouts to leave school with the ability to do something for a living. For example, a child who is introduced to tailoring in primary four may reach primary seven with at least the ability to mend shirts, blouses, among many other things. This therefore implies that even if such a child fails to join the higher levels of education, he or she will have learnt a skill which can enable him or her make a living and not becoming a burden to the nation.
Another fact is that one can discover that he or she has a special talent in music or sports right from the elementary level. Even if such a person fails to complete his or her education, he or she may be able to sharpen his or her God given capital to greater heights. For the government to adopt such an idea, we the youth should campaign for it through radio and television programs and also through writing articles in newspapers, constantly advocating for vocationalisation of the school curriculum. The media in Uganda can easily spark immediate action, and is far more effective than giving our views to the money hungry political leaders.
To realize the Millennium Development Goals, youth in my country have to work towards developing a culture of sharing skills. People who have special skills should develop a heart of sharing their skills with others. Selfishness is senseless. If one has a skill in carpentry, basketry, computers, brick making among other areas, he or she must share it with others so that we can together help develop our nation. Lets organize workshops, seminars among other ways in which we can share skills with others. This will culminate into reduced unemployment, reduced dependency, reduced illiteracy, and reduced starving, among many other benefits. I personally have artistic skills which I endeavor to pass on to others through workshops with local people and through teaching in schools.
Yet sharing skills can be enhanced through the formulation of organized Youth Development groups. Working individually is good but working as a group enhances your voice. As youths, we should endeavor to formulate groups -- not Gossip promoting groups -- but developmental groups which will enable us improve on our production and incomes. Such groups also attract funding from government and international bodies. With formed Youth Development groups, production is improved, incomes of members improved, education afforded, poverty reduced, and development realized.
Through team work we can also educate the masses about the importance of bearing manageable children and the dangers of early marriages. This will help minimize child mortality, maternal deaths due to early pregnancies, too much dependency, among many other dangers. However, effective application of this practice may necessitate some facilitation from the government and or international funding agencies. The government can support the above cause therefore through giving facilitation to the youth groups involved in the activity and also giving incentives/extra benefits like free education to small families. But this requires local council leaders to equip themselves with knowledge concerning each and every family.
Through youth groups, we should enhance our environment by tree planting, ensuring a clean Uganda by educating the masses about the dangers of living in a dirty environment and also the advantages of good sanitation among many other environmental issues. This will greatly improve on the environmental conditions, depreciating sanitary conditions and will make people enjoy better health conditions with clean water, less disease due to poor sanitation, and starving. Through youth groups, we must educate the masses about the importance of immunization.
Added to the above, to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, Ugandan youths should also work towards a culture of valuing time. Most Ugandans do not take time as something precious. Many energetic youths misuse their time by indulging in too much leisure which accommodates practices like excessive gambling or promiscuous behavior causing unwanted pregnancies; too many others devote most of their time to excessive prayer without work hoping for miracles. I do not think that one of these days, food will start falling from heaven the way manna did in the past!
Likewise, development does not fall like manna. People work for it. We should therefore make good use of our time and achieve the very best out of it. Good and productive use of our time will lead to fat pockets, reduced starving, ability to afford education among many other benefits hence realization of the millennium Development Goals.
Yet people who value time do not wait for glittering jobs. They do any job that comes their way as long as it pays and sometimes seek self employment. As Ugandan youths, we should stop minimizing jobs. So many of us have degrees, diplomas and certificates but there are very few employment opportunities for us. We look at some jobs as cheap, demeaning, dirty and meant only for the uneducated yet we continue to roam the streets of “Kampala” searching for employment which is not there. After unsuccessful trials to gain employment, our sisters resort to prostitution, others fall victims of sexual/carpet interviews as a requirement to fulfill before being employed in Company X hence persistence of disease, multiplication of poverty and continued dependency. Therefore, as we wait to be employed in the fields for which we had training, we should take on any job that comes our way. Where possible, we should also create own employment. This will save us from a million troubles and its one of the major steps towards realization of the Millennium Development Goals.
However, we should also use the media like radio, television and newspapers constantly to advocate for an external workers’ policy. This will enable exportation of excess labour force to countries which suffer from labour shortages hence reducing the levels of unemployment in the country.
Added to the above, another effective way of advocating for an external workers’ policy is adoption of a “No policy-No vote” system. We should condition our power hungry leaders that if they want us (the youths) to vote for their stay in power, they should first ensure introduction of an external workers’ policy to save the country from raging unemployment.
All the above ideas are possible in an environment where most youths are healthy. But with the continued undisciplined spread of AIDS especially among youth due to ill practices like fear of testing, doctors both professional and traditional are sexually harassing female patients, female and male students giving their bodies to teachers in exchange for marks, and unfaithfulness of partners among others, there is still along way to go.
But as enlightened youth, we have to cut this short by respecting ourselves and our professions. Harsh punishments should be given to people who indulge in such and again the media can assist us put to light such common but silent injustices so that government attention is attracted and action taken sooner. As youths, we should also endeavor to teach fellow youth and other people in the villages the dangers of indulging in such bad practices and also teaching them the importance of HIV testing and counseling, plus positive living.
In conclusion, by reducing the rampage of poverty and ignorance, the achievement of other Millennium Development Goals will become a sure deal. However this requires maximum cooperation among the youth through group work, group discussions and also lending a helping hand where necessary and possible. Through peaceful demonstrations, applying a No Policy-No Vote system and constant use of the media, we can influence government policies. External forces can also help us direct our government in the appropriate direction.
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