“I believe the children are our future
Teach them well and let them lead the way
Show them all the beauty they possess inside”
Before I left for college in 2012, I was a junior board member for the youth group of the church that I attended at that time. As a junior member, I was tasked with bridging the “gap” between my fellow youths and board members and being the voice of one party to the other party.
When I returned from college in 2015, I then became a member of the board. Being older, more mature and more experienced, I was able to take a bigger leadership role and assume bigger tasks. So for the most part, I’ve dealt with youths for most of my adult life.
During this time, I’ve noticed that the persons in the trenches with the youths absolutely care wholeheartedly, a small portion of those not in the trenches cares enough to help however and whenever it can, and the larger portion of those not in the trenches doesn’t care enough to move a finger – but oh do they offer lip service!
I was at a conference-, workshop-, seminar-thingy on Tuesday with persons from all over the Dutch Kingdom (and some persons from other locations). I am going to assume that it was put on by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Youths and Sports, but please don’t quote me. I wasn’t listening too attentively until Iris’ mom (Richelda Rodriquez-Emmanuel) came up to present. She’s a really great presenter and she had me hooked from the title of her presentation “Asking for a Child”. In 2019, someone is always asking for a friend (lol).
So to cover my own glutes, I won’t be saying too much of what she said. I don’t know how top secret this thing was, but it was definitely something that should be put out for the public to listen to. She mentioned some increasing figures in child neglect and abuse cases over the years, policies that are in place that could better “child safety” situations that are not being used; and she mentioned our justice/prison system. She stated where the “priorities” of that ministry are – and let's just say that the youth may not be high on that list (in terms of facilities for troubled youth, etc.).
Another thing she mentioned was the fact that all of a sudden, persons (both citizens and those in power) are concerned with the state of our prison. Apparently, it took one of our political members “visiting” there for a while to finally get people’s attention. While Iris’ mommy isn’t and would never wish bad on anyone, she did go on to say and I paraphrase, “Does it need to come to a point that one of our political members’ children find themselves in need of ‘child care/safety’ before something is done?”
Anyway, I’m just venting and recapping. That day, I saw a lot of people who care about youth, as well as a lot of tools that could be used to better their “situations”. They had six different workshops happening and I got to sit in on a piece of each of them. It was really nice to see so many people who care and the tools that could be in place or implemented.
Eh. Band moving…
*Cues: Greatest Love of All by Whitney Houston*
