For A Youth in Crisis: The Antidote is to Have That Difficult Conversation!

In the Holy Bible and most specifically in Lamentations 3:29, we are instructed to'may be put our mouth in the dust so may be there is hope.I am not a Theologian nor an ordained minister so I will not make a feeble attempt at expounding on that because I am unqualified.

The dust has settled and our community has embarked on the herculean task of picking ourselves up and trying to move on. There have already been a few meetings aimed at addressing mental health issues within the community, an important first step in the right direction.

I bear no illusion that addressing the issues faced by young people in these far lands of the able is an easy conversation to have. It is a difficult conversation, but one that needs to happen if we are to be true to ourselves we must face the problems head on. I understand that we have cultural barriers, traditions and histories which instruct us to shy away from discussing issues such as mental health and its effects on individuals and the community at large but we can no longer bury our heads in the sand and think that the problems we have are nothing but a passing cloud!

The time is ripe to come together and practice the old adage: -It takes a village to raise a child -because failing to address and engage our youth fails them and in turn the community suffers the consequences. I know there is the hesitancy that stems out of frustrations and grief especially when we see a young person pushed to the ultimate end and words during those moments, even the right ones never hit their mark.

It is imperative that despite our imperfections as parents, clergy, teachers, big Brothers and big Sisters as well as peers we pull together and have these difficult conversations in a bid to stave off the rising trend. The clergymen and women have a unique opportunity to address these matters from their vantage points and help bring people together to address social ills and challenges afflicting our youth.

The hesitancy we have as a community does little to help us address mental health issues and sweeping our concerns under the rug about suspected issues and behaviors only helps them grow into bigger problems that we then deal with as tragedies. There are those among us as Kenyans and African immigrants who are gifted with talents to organize and help us address these problems and it is my hope and desire that we will see a change in the way we accept our realities and seek to make a difference.

I do understand that for most parents especially, there is the natural urge to shield our children from the frantic and frenetic chaos the World brings. The problem however, is that as they age, they discover the hard truths of a broken system that they must navigate to adulthood and herein lies the frustrations and despair. We have a moral obligation to be there for one another, if one parent sees something, please reach out and say something instead of thanking God that whatever you saw wasn't about one of your own.

Our children must be OUR business, their anguish must yield OUR tears and responses, their failures must be OURS in the same way we celebrate their many successes. We as adult members of the African immigrant community are called forth in our faith, our experiences, our academics and training not to hide and speak in hushed tones BUT to act and respectfully address the elephant in the room.

Let us pray that God may grant us the strength to speak with malice towards nobody but with compassion and goodwill whether at home, at church, at work and out on the streets. OUR CHILDREN ARE WORTH FIGHTING FOR!

Simon Ngugi

Lowell, Massachusetts