Young people should point out their weaknesses To HIV/AIDS

Publisher’s Foreword: This essay was one of four runner-up submissions for the 2007 World AIDS Day Student Essay Contest.

YOUNG PEOPLE SHOULD POINT OUT THEIR WEAKNESSES TO HIV/AIDS AND GET THEIR PROTECTION ACCORDINGLY

I believe that being vulnerable to the HIV/AIDS pandemic is portrayed from the behaviors of others and what I think as an individual.

Self-abusing and the eagerness to pursue peer pressure groups is so disastrous as one thing can lead to another and the result is one losing self-control.

As a teenager there is no way I can run away from my peers and would associate with them in order to be valued. Whether they do bad things such as taking drugs or alcohol, would be discovered along the way. The results of anti-social behavior usually leaves oneself being affected by HIV/AIDS in most circumstances.

Unhappy life experiences such as ill-treatment and abuse can lead someone to think that they are unlovable. To this end, they will try to make them accepted out there by other people by committing immoral behavior like prostitution. This makes young people vulnerable to the pandemic disease as they try to restructure their life.

Young people usually develop a very narrow viewing of themselves especially in their own lives. Underestimating themselves and thinking that they cannot become go anywhere or do something better in their future can contribute to their indulgence in unbecoming issues. Once involving themselves in these issues, they begin open to attack by HIV/AIDS.

Teenagers and the young generation of today are very much influenced with the need to get money even at any cost of their lives. These are easily carried away with minor things especially luxuries. The so-called sugar mummies and daddies already know how to deal with young people in conducting them to do prostitution or to go out with them thereby spreading HIV/AIDS to them. This is mainly because young people also can not make decisions correctly especially on matters concerning their future and what they want to achieve. They may at one time feel as if it is a crime to say no to something.

Young people are also in vulnerable situation in the environment in which they live. There are so many people who go around raping children or taking them to other countries in order to convince them to make money for their benefits. These culprits are usually relatives of which we do no know what is at the back of their minds when convincing us to perform something which we think is good for us all. If uncles rape us, it is not that easy to talk about the issue to our parents, maybe because we have been intimidated or we do not want to cause misunderstandings in the family, therefore we hold ourselves back. In a way it is risking our lives because we don’t know the HIV status of these people that might be positive.

The media especially the T.V. has cause so many young people to risk their lives just because of being irrational. The fact that others are doing say, pornography will make them willing to perform that.

It is high time young people of Zimbabwe for us to move away from being vulnerable to HIV/AIDS and devise our own ways, for ourselves and the future generations, of being stable and powerful enough to fight against this dreadful disease.

Prevention is better than cure

Publisher’s Foreword: This essay was one of four runner-up submissions for the 2007 World AIDS Day Student Essay Contest.

PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE

A lot of people are dying because of a disease that can be prevented but cannot be cured. AIDS has no size, age, sex, or any specific people it aims for. Prevent yourself from getting this terrible deadly disease. AIDS is not the same as getting such diseases as flu or malaria because these diseases can be cured. AIDS can be transmitted mainly by not abstaining. People do not understand what AIDS means, what it is and what it does to the human body. AIDS can be transmitted mainly by having unprotected sex with someone with the disease. So start abstaining. If people could understand what AIDS is, how to prevent it and how it is transmitted, they would make life easy for themselves and the community at large. Life is special, so stick to one partner and be faithful so that AIDS cannot be spread easily. The letters A.I.D.S. mean Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Make life easy for others by teaching and talking openly about AIDS. AS the saying goes, “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.” Do not live alone. Join any group or discussion ministry near you and teach oterhs what AIDS is all about. We could even start an AIDS club in our community or schools and have organizations to spread information about AIDS. Do no do life alone. Learn and teach because learning does not have an ending.

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