Stronger families can get rid of junkies – Mweenda

Stronger families can get rid of junkies – Mweenda

By Barnabas Zulu

THE Open Development has attributed the growing issue of teen criminals known as ‘junkies’ in Zambian communities to a weakening family systems and loss of traditional values.

Speaking in an interview, the organisation’s media director, Chester Mweenda, said in an interview yesterday there was an urgent need for Zambians to rebuild strong family structures rooted in cultural values that once bound communities together.

“What has brought in the issues of ‘junkies’ is a weak family system,” Mweenda said.
“We need to develop systems that will strengthen the family system and entrench traditional values that hold the community together.”

Mweenda said society had evolved and many children were being neglected, which was the reason they were becoming delinquents.
He said economic challenges and weak social structures should not lead to negligence of the family as the primary social institution.

“Survival of the fittest doesn’t mean that we forget about family. Let’s embrace each other and love one another,” Mweenda said.
He said past generations thrived through communal care and unity even in times of hardship.
“Our great grandfathers used to live for many years because they knew what family is and what it means. They could care for one another even when they had nothing,” Mweenda said.

He attributed the emergence of social problems like the junkies to the effects of western influence and individualism.
The Zambian society, he said, was not yet ready to abandon its communal roots.
“The traditional way of life was great, not this western [one] we have adopted. We have not reached the stage for each to live by himself,” Mweenda said.
He said the rise in substance abuse among youths could be linked to family breakdown and neglect, which were rare under traditional family structures.
“We are seeing a lot of children becoming junkies because of neglect in their families, which wasn’t common when we lived as one in Zambia’s traditional way of life,” Mweenda said.