News / National
Zim girls abusing alcohol
15 Mar 2014 at 06:18hrs | Views
Recently, Zimbabwe and the rest of the world commemorated International Women's Day and different Women organisations conducted several activities that highlighted and celebrated their achievements as well as challenges that they face in their daily lives.
Among the achievements that women celebrated were Women Empowerment and Gender equality that was enshrined in the new constitution.
However, that was not the case with some women who professed ignorance over the importance of the day as they were busy with their "booze" at a local club in downtown Harare.
What was shocking was that the "imbibers" comprised mainly women of schoolgoing age and were clad in their school uniforms and were busy dancing at explicit ZimDancehall music and shouting obscenities at other patrons.
"I don't care about what you say because this is my life and get away from me if you don't like me. This lifestyle has nothing to do with anybody," shouted Lissa (not her real name)
"Why do you want to ask about other people's lives in a bar," Lissa demanded as she drank a black label pint.
As the Disc Jockey changed various beats on the dance floor so was Lissa and her colleagues who kept on galloping alcohol and their "sexy" dancing moves attracted the attention of heavily intoxicated elderly man who grabbed each of the girls for a dance.
Paida (14) a form two student at a local college said she sneaks from school and drinks beer because she is addicted to alcohol and she always brings her friends. "Staying in school is boring as the lectures are long and tiresome and school is difficult for me, my friends and I enjoy coming here because we are free to express our dancing talents on the dancing stage, also the music is very good compared to the nagging of teachers"
"When we are broke some of the patrons offer us beer and offer to take us home, we have become popular such that when we skip a day they call us to check on us," she also added.
In a survey carried out by this reporter such scenarios are a regular feature in different parts of Harare and the consumption of alcohol by these young girls has been cited as one of the major reasons that drives them to commit crimes and prostitution, thus fuelling the spread of the HIV and Aids.
Mercy Mandenge, a single parent who has a young teenage daughter, expressed concern over the issue of alcoholism among young schoolgoing girls and said:
"I have a teenage daughter and am worried about how she spends her day since I will be at work. These cases of alcoholism are very rampant nowadays, but I always try to control and monitor her. The police must assist if they see such children in bars," she said.
One of the doormen at a local beer outlet said the young school girls had become their biggest clients: "These young girls are our most loyal patrons and they come in large numbers, we cannot chase them out as they push our sales volumes high," said Daniel the door man.
He further said: "We know it is bad to serve them beer as they will be in uniform and they are still young, we sometimes refuse them entry and they offer to bribe us to get in, with the paltry salary that we get here it has become my second salary."
Patrick, a patron at a local beer joint had no kind words for both the parents and the school authorities; he blamed parents for being negligent of the young girl's future and rebuked the school authorities for not meeting their objective of empowering the girl child, he called the school authorities "greedy thieves who are only interested in their own welfare at the expense of other people's money and trust.
"I think such bars have to be probed by the police on why they allow such young girls to get in. Also the school authorities are not doing enough to monitor their pupils, so are the parents," he said.
Getting comments from some local colleges authorities was fruitless with them turning a deaf ear on the situation.
With new cases of HIV/Aids having being noted to be rife among people aged 15 to 24, the country needs to enact legislation that protects juveniles from indulging in alcoholism and other vices that expose them to such dangers.
Among the achievements that women celebrated were Women Empowerment and Gender equality that was enshrined in the new constitution.
However, that was not the case with some women who professed ignorance over the importance of the day as they were busy with their "booze" at a local club in downtown Harare.
What was shocking was that the "imbibers" comprised mainly women of schoolgoing age and were clad in their school uniforms and were busy dancing at explicit ZimDancehall music and shouting obscenities at other patrons.
"I don't care about what you say because this is my life and get away from me if you don't like me. This lifestyle has nothing to do with anybody," shouted Lissa (not her real name)
"Why do you want to ask about other people's lives in a bar," Lissa demanded as she drank a black label pint.
As the Disc Jockey changed various beats on the dance floor so was Lissa and her colleagues who kept on galloping alcohol and their "sexy" dancing moves attracted the attention of heavily intoxicated elderly man who grabbed each of the girls for a dance.
Paida (14) a form two student at a local college said she sneaks from school and drinks beer because she is addicted to alcohol and she always brings her friends. "Staying in school is boring as the lectures are long and tiresome and school is difficult for me, my friends and I enjoy coming here because we are free to express our dancing talents on the dancing stage, also the music is very good compared to the nagging of teachers"
"When we are broke some of the patrons offer us beer and offer to take us home, we have become popular such that when we skip a day they call us to check on us," she also added.
Mercy Mandenge, a single parent who has a young teenage daughter, expressed concern over the issue of alcoholism among young schoolgoing girls and said:
"I have a teenage daughter and am worried about how she spends her day since I will be at work. These cases of alcoholism are very rampant nowadays, but I always try to control and monitor her. The police must assist if they see such children in bars," she said.
One of the doormen at a local beer outlet said the young school girls had become their biggest clients: "These young girls are our most loyal patrons and they come in large numbers, we cannot chase them out as they push our sales volumes high," said Daniel the door man.
He further said: "We know it is bad to serve them beer as they will be in uniform and they are still young, we sometimes refuse them entry and they offer to bribe us to get in, with the paltry salary that we get here it has become my second salary."
Patrick, a patron at a local beer joint had no kind words for both the parents and the school authorities; he blamed parents for being negligent of the young girl's future and rebuked the school authorities for not meeting their objective of empowering the girl child, he called the school authorities "greedy thieves who are only interested in their own welfare at the expense of other people's money and trust.
"I think such bars have to be probed by the police on why they allow such young girls to get in. Also the school authorities are not doing enough to monitor their pupils, so are the parents," he said.
Getting comments from some local colleges authorities was fruitless with them turning a deaf ear on the situation.
With new cases of HIV/Aids having being noted to be rife among people aged 15 to 24, the country needs to enact legislation that protects juveniles from indulging in alcoholism and other vices that expose them to such dangers.
Source - NewsDay
