Honourable
the Guest of Honour,
Joan Mayer
USAID
Tanzania
Distinguished
invited guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Allow me to
extend my sincere gratitude and appreciation to the Je Nifanyeje Coordinator
and his/her team, first for organising this educational and problem –solving
oriented seminar which aims at protecting our children especially our girls
from HIV/AIDS; I am privileged and honoured to be given an opportunity to share
my time and concerns on this important event that aims at making our society an
HIV/AIDS-free generation.
Honourable
the Guest of Honour,
Much as been
said and done to address our concerns on HIV/AIDS. As a politician, I have seen
number of policies, projects and plans that have been initiated by the
government either to create awareness amongst us, the society we lead and for
the international community. My concerns, are not on the goodness nor the
weaknesses of such policies nor efforts, but my concern is largely concerned
with the readness and willingness of us as the public image, as we play a role
to create and raise awareness especially to girls, on how irresponsibility,
negligence and even ignorance can shutter their dreams. As a parent,
who also happen to have two beautiful young girls, my concerns are on how we as
parents play a role in ensuring that our children understand how vulnerable
they are in being exposed to HIV/AIDS. I have seen families torn apart because
of HIV/AIDS, I have seen young girls being unable to fulfil their dreams just
because we as parents have not play a role to educate and disseminate relevant
information and parental advice to our kids. It is my call to all parents, that
we create a special bond with our kids that will create a very friendly and
easy environment for our children to tell us much about their lives so that
when we arise awareness on HIV/AIDS, these children will grow a sense of
appreciation instead of resentment. In this, i insist the choice of words we
use especially when we discuss a delicate issue as HIV AIDS.
As a Pastor,
it is my role to remind you about much of the moral of the Holy Book. It is my
duty to create awareness to young girls and women on the importance of
honouring the readings. As we all know that, there are commandments in the Holy
Book for early sex involvement and as it is considered to be a sin, I urge you
all to stick to that. Abstinence, is clear concept to you all, I believe as I
do not intend to preach today. But avoid sex before marriage and stay safe in
the hands of God, your time will come. And I know, if you put forth God in
everything , He will protect you and make your youth a restored one.
Honourable
the Guest of Honour,
Much as this
spiritual and moral approach seems to address HV/AIDS, but we are still obliged
to frequently educate and remind our young people on how to behave in order to
rescue their precious lives. That’s why I greatly commend this seminar because
it is one of the many strategies that we should make advantage out of them in
order to be safe.
Hounourable,
the guest of hounour,
I know that
in most of families especially in Iringa region as the statistics show,
families have been in one way or another seen the HIV/AIDS effects. It is not
my place to condemn and judge people who have been affected with HIV AIDS and I
know that to those who have already been affected by HIV/AIDS that is not end
of the world, and as I take this into account, I find a great responsibility
today to make a difference in these young women lives.
Honourable
the Guest of Honour,
Socially,
the African social setting has for a long time in history, glorified the
patriarch domination and subdued women as the inferior creatures and the second
class human beings. This consequently denied women of the fundamental rights
including the right to self determination, right to possession of wealth, right
to decide on the number of children to give birth and so forth All these
psychological strings have consequently made women to be dependent on men even
if they have capacity to think and work just like men. And that’s why sometimes
you find both a husband and a wife have been blessed with a good well paying job
but the wife will always wait for the husband to take care of her and pay for
the bills in the household. Even for the young couples expecting to get
married, the case is the same. Why? Because the society had excluded women from
social responsibility and accustomed them to be dependent.
This sense
of irresponsibility is what makes our female children to ease themselves when
they are offered simple and unsustainable gifts, and eventually they fall into
temptations – the temptations which cause them to engage into premature sexual
relations which consequently increase the chances of being infected by HIV.
Hounourable
the Guest of Honour,
The central
theme of the today’s seminar is the Vulnerability of the young female
population to contacting HIV. In my opinion, vulnerability situation is there
to stay for the weak and irresponsible people. If you don’t work in any
circumstance you will be vulnerable to hunger, if you don’t use a mosquito net
you will be vulnerable to malaria. Similarly if you have no fear of God,
irresponsible wanting cheap and luxurious life without paying the price you
will be vulnerable to evil temptations and hence in high risks to contacting
HIV.
Honourable
the Guest of Honour,
Yes you are
the product of the privious generation ,but not the prisoner of the privious
generation !
You don't
have to live with the same challenge , The same problems, The
same backward thinking
Same emotion
stress, intimidating spirit ,start thinking like a leader, take the lead, you
can not lead beyond your own mentality ,you got to believe yourself, You
can begin today
The current
moment is where our better future begins.the past gave us a wealth of memories
and experiences, and the present gives us a chance to use them wisely.
The present
brings us an opportunity to create an existing future. But the promise of the
future demands that we pay a price in the present. The opportunity of the
current moment must be embraced or the rewards of the future will be
withheld. Our goals and ambition of the past are bringing to us present
rewards. If our current rewards are small,then our past effort were small. And
if today's effort is small the future reward will be small as well. Today
brings to each of us 1,440 minutes; 86,400 ticks of the clock. Both the poor and
wealthy, girls and boys, have the same 24 hours of opportunity. Time favors no
one. Today merely says here l am. What are you going to do with me?how well we
use each day is largely a function of attitude. With the right attitude we can
seize this day and make it a point of a new beginning. Today does not care
about yesterday's failures or tomorrow's regrets. It merely offers the same
precious grift..... Another 24 hours... Hope we will use it wisely. The
greatest opportunity today brings with it is the opportunity to begin the
process of change ,
You may ask
how can we change?
As human
beings we need a variety of input and influence and voices, if we are not
careful,
Impurity
enters into our hearts mainly through our eyes and our ears. This impurity then
comes OUT from our hearts and expresses itself through the various members of
our bodies - primarily through our tongues and our eyes. You must therefore be
especially careful about what you sees and what you hears. You cannot get
all the answers to life and business from one person or from one source.
Attitude is
greatly shaped by influence and association. Don't spend most of your time
on the voices that don't count. Tune out the shallow voices so that you will
have more time to tune in the valuable ones. puts distance between you and
the wrong influence.
You must
constantly ask yourself these questions:
Who am I
around?
What are
they doing to me?
What have
they got me reading?
What have
they got me saying?
Where do they
have me going?
What do they
have me thinking?
And most
important, what do they have me becoming?
Then ask
yourself the big question: Is that okay?
Don't join
an easy crowd; you won't grow. Go where the expectations and the demands to
perform are high.
As some one
once said, Don't wish it were easier; wish you were better. Don't wish for less
problems; wish for more skills. Don't wish for less challenges; wish for more
wisdom.
My piece of
advice to these daughters of mine is this one: “Get to know the purpose of your
creation” Ask yourself why did God create you? Definitely God has a purpose in
your life. You have to do your part to fulfill the purpose of your creation.
And the purpose of your creation is to do the will of God.
Honourable
the Guest of Honour,
Much as the
human person struggles to master his/her environment, much as the human person
struggles to make a living out of this already complicated contemporary World,
Much as the World governments and non-state actors strive to suppress HIV AIDS,
unless every human person undergoes a spiritual retreat and meditate on the
purpose of his/her creation, and fulfil that purpose, the chances to succeed
will still be in vain. Someone opinion should never be the reality in your
life.
Honourable
the Guest of Honour,
Having
provided my pastoral guidance, I once again thank you very much for preparing
this great event, and I wish you lots of success as you move on raising the
awareness of the people of this country on how to protect themselves against the
HIV AIDS. Let me end by the quotation fro Jim Rohn
Let others
lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you.
Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in
someone else's hands, but not you.
May I ask
you to say this out loud after me "An HIV/AIDS free generation is
possible, it begins with me" .
Thank you
for listening. Thank you and God Bless You All.
Iringa,
19th March,
2013.
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