Richard Williams
Teenagers in the Caribbean are faced with many choices. Most of those choices bring consequences, both good and bad. In most cases the easy choices lead to teenage pregnancy, loss of life, imprisonment and/or a bleak future. The hard choices means staying in school or walking away from a fight but the rewards are great.
There is a program known as Health and Family Life Education (HFLE) that has successfully provided Caribbean teenagers with good decision making skills. It is a life skills programme for youth, which focuses on knowledge and skill development for the whole person and it has been around since 1998.
The video below highlights success stories of Caribbean teenagers, some of whom overcame severe social problems by learning how to make the right choices in life.
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The stories shown in the video above prove that programs like HFLE works. Even in situations where a child may have started down the wrong road, teaching the importance of making the right choices can help.
Which leads me to ask myself the question related to the story, Pregnant At 13, Two Jamaican Teenagers Share Their Stories ;
What if Shachelle and Shenika had the ability to make sound and confident decisions? I am almost certain that getting pregnant at 13 would not have been one of their options.
It is easy to blame the government for our current problems but parents can help to ensure that their children are equip with those decision making skills that will prepare them for adulthood.
In the end, teenagers in the Caribbean must learn to make their own decisions. Although parents want to protect them from the mistakes they made, they should remember that the wisdom they now have is a result of the decisions they have made in the past and what they have learned from those decisions.
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