As policymakers come to terms with recent findings that many of the nation’s children are suicidal, depressed and intoxicated, Blossom Tucker, a minister of the gospel, is offering the solution which has proven to be effective for generations.
“We have to give our children Jesus. Tell them about Him. Let them read the Word,” said Tucker, who is also a local director for the Kingston and St Andrew Chapter of the Jamaica Child Evangelism Fellowship.
According to the findings of the School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS), one in every 10 high-school students reported that they have gone to school drunk, and a similar number have attended classes under the influence of marijuana or other drugs.
Even more frightening is the reality that of the girls in grade 11, nearly half of the cohort, or 47.8 per cent to be exact, are experiencing depression, and 36.6 per cent are having suicidal thoughts. There are calls now for urgent intervention to address these issues which are affecting children across the board.
Minister Tucker believes many of the mental health challenges facing our children can be addressed if parents start exposing their children again to the Word of God and encourage them to attend Sunday and Sabbath schools.
“These parents in these days, they don’t see the importance of the children being converted or convicted of their sins. And so a lot of times they would leave the children at home and they would come to church and the children stay home and they would sleep, and they would be on their tablets or watching television.
And the parents would come to church. In my days, even if my parent was not going to church, I had to go to Sunday school. So I believe that we as parents, as the younger parents now, have to get back to that basic,” she told the Freedom Come Rain newspaper.
The Jamaica Child Evangelism Fellowship tries to expose children to the Word of God and encourage Christian students to share the gospel with their peers.
“I believe that child evangelism can, in the sense of help(ing) children, because what we deal with is their faith in God. And when they have a relationship with God and are able to relate to the Word of God and what the Word of God says to them, I believe that even though they’re going through this peer pressure or they’re going through stress, they can draw from what the Word says, and they can use it, to even build their self-esteem [and] to help them to grow in their faith,” she said.