CHALLENGES OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Corona Virus disease (Covid-19) is a global pandemic that affects the respiratory organs of human beings leaving them with difficulty in breathing, running nose and dry cough. It started in December 2019 in a county town in China, Wuhan, spreading to the whole world and every country called for a lockdown to contain further spread of the virus.
Putting on facemasks, hand sanitising or washing hands with soap and social distancing are some of the measures put in place to place to prevent the spread of the Corona Virus.
Generally, the deadly pandemic has done more harm than good, a great disservice to all people and consistently challenging the adolescent girls and young women as analysed below:
Teenage pregnancy cases shot up during the lockdown of countries. This is due to the idleness of men who no longer have what to do and as the saying goes, an idle mind is a devil’s workshop, these men are forcing themselves on the young women and adolescent girls leaving them with unplanned pregnancies. Adolescent girls also end up in relationships that result into early pregnancies due to desperacy and active emotions. Young women and teenage girls who were discovered pregnant in the last lockdown, where two thousand three hundred and seventy two (2372). This calls for young women and adolescent girls to have self-control and keep themselves busy as they help their parents with domestic work.
Increase in number of early marriages wereby teenage girls look up to men for the fulfilment of their needs and desires leading to early and unplanned pregnancies, unprepared for marriage. It occurs that most of the girls being locked down, without attending school, see themselves growing so fast and fit for marriage. Some men with low sense of humour take advantage of the adolescent girls. To keep this away, raising, young women should get involved in youth projects provided by the Government and some Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) so that they can get a life and live without depending on men.
The Corona Virus disease, due to the stop that was put on travelling, let to high sexual immorality and perversion – defined as ungodly, unnatural and obscene ways of having sexual intercourse such as prostitution, homosexuality and bestiality, incest among others. In a certain part, the police found men putting on dresses acting like women. This is summed up as homosexuality. While in muyenga in a hotel, the police caught 14 girls who were being trained to sleep with dogs and to be exported to the UK. This is termed as bestiality which is the act of a human being having sexual intercourse with animals like dogs, cats, horses, among others. This is caused especially among young girls and young women by lack of Godly conviction and spiritual retardation.
Girls are called upon to mend their spiritual life through praying, reading the Bible, and engaging in community charitable work like cleaning road sides among others.
Unemployment and joblessness caused by the rampant spread of covid-19 has reached its climax. Having no job means having no money for catering for the girls’ needs. This results into starvation since one has nothing to eat and because of this, two men set themselves on fire in Mukono and died since they could not find anything to eat and the family. This is resolved by the involvement of youthful women in hand craft work, which includes sewing, tailoring, weaving among other skills. To sum it up, covid-19 has brought havoc in our lives especially to the youth women and adolescent girls. It has caused pre-mature deaths, early pregnancies, and early marriages, since many of the girls dropped out of school. For all this period of the pandemic, many people term it as the most dreadful, horrible and grave experience of all.