Lockdown

Lockdown! For myself and many others it’s been the perfect definition of an at home family vacation. For others it’s the real life version of their worst nightmare.

Covid-19 has been the talk of the town for more than two months now but no one ever seems to talk about or even notice how lockdown has turned day to day struggles into life threatening problems for a large percentage of the teens in South Africa. Let’s discuss some of these problems. Poverty has been a big problem in South Africa since long before lockdown.

Lockdown has caused most South Africans to lose the little bit of income they had. There are entire families who depended on one person to provide for all of them and now that the breadwinner lost his/her only income, families are starving. On 28 April 2020 an article was released on www.americamagazine.org with the heading “Hunger begins to replace Covid-19 existential fear in South Africa.” 2019 poverty statistics in South Africa states that 40% of South Africans live below the UBPL (upper bound poverty line).

Lockdown is only going to cause those statistics to increase and before we know it more people are going to be dying of starvation than of Covid-19. Being locked down with an abuser is probably the single worst thing that could happen to a person. News 24 released an article on 4 April 2020 on their web page www.news24.com. In the article it says that violence against women and children will only get worse as the Covid-19 pandemic rages on.

If only they knew how correct they were… I read an article by www.ewn.co.za saying that 120 000 victims rang the national helpline for abused women and children in the first 3 weeks. Women and children are being abused every day but now the only difference is, they can’t go anywhere. The only thing they can do is to try and stick it out.

Living in these types of high stress environments can cause serious mental and physical health problems. These are very serious matters that contribute to the list of reasons why the youth end up acting out. Having to do bad things just to stay alive. Teenagers suffer everyday. Whether it is having to commit crime to be able to feed themselves and their families, or having to suffer from PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) due to a violent and abusive childhood. There are teens with bigger problems than having to do a couple of chores during this lockdown.

Most of us are in lockdown with our picture perfect family. Our biggest stress is to worry about who’s turn it is to unpack the dishwasher. Sometimes we need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Our biggest problem doesn’t even compare to others smallest problem. We need to start being more thankful for the privileges we take for granted every day. Next time your parents ask you to sweep the floor do it , and do it with a smile because you are living the dream of many South African teens.