ESTHER COMPOUND TEENAGERS IN LOVE WITH ALCOHOL – BECAUSE BARS NEVER CLOSE IN THE AREA
Written by Millennium on October 9, 2019
LINDA SOKO TEMBO writes
@SunZambian
A 60-year-old woman of Lusaka’s Esther Compound, Martha Sakala has appealed to the Lusaka City Council (LCC) to regulate the times that bars open and close in her area because of alcohol abuse by youths.
Ms Sakala said it was sad that youths in her community were involved in illicit drinking because bars had no specific opening and closing time.
She said some parents in the community had serious challenges of curbing the vice of alcohol abuse among the children because bars were always open and that youths were often patronising those places any time of the day.
Ms Sakala who was a mother of six said that two of her children were victims of alcohol abuse and that she was deeply troubled by their lifestyle.
She said her oldest son who was on ARVs, was not responding well to treatment because he used to drink a lot on an empty stomach two years ago.
“I am appealing to LCC to regulate what time they should be opening bars and closing them in our community Kwa Esther,
“Many youths are abusing alcohol because of having nothing to do. They just sit in bars and drink even with good grade 12 results. My son is not responding to medication because most of the time he was in a drunken state and would forget to take his HIV drugs and now he is sick,” he said.
Ms Sakala said her son started drinking beer just after he completed grade 12 and he had very good points but failed to complete university because of alcohol abuse.
She further said her last-born daughter who was a mother of two was also a drunkard and had no time to taken care of her small little children.
Ms Sakala complained that her daughter was failing to look after her children and to provide for them because all she did was drink alcohol every day, something that broke her heart.
“Ever since my daughter lost her husband she has just become a drunkard I am the one who looks after her and her children and my source of livelihood is selling by the road side and the money is not enough,” she said.
Ms Sakala said it was saddening that most of the youths had a bad lifestyle in the community and that there was need for government to look into the situation before many lives were lost.