The leader of Kingdom Empowerment Church (KEC) Prophet Bruce Edwards has called on the Bulawayo city fathers to facilitate a city-wide prayer service for the youth following revelations of the decadent behaviour at what have been termed “Vuzu parties”.
Vuzu parties are group parties organised by school children where they partake of alcohol, experiment with drugs and have sexual orgies which are mostly unprotected group sex.
At the beginning of this month (May) Police in Bulawayo arrested about 120 teenagers who had gathered at various points in the city centre allegedly to go to Vuzu Parties or cause general nuisance.
Prophet Bruce Edwards bemoaned the lack of healthy recreational activities and moral guidance for the youth as a cause this social decadence.
“We must encourage the young to fear God and must introduce the love of Jesus Christ to our children. What is happening to our school children at these so-called Vuzu parties is not only shocking but appalling.” Said Prophet Bruce Edwards.
Some Bulawayo residents also expressed concern at the increasing number of drunken underaged children seen in the city streets particularly at weekends. The last Saturday of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair that happened last month saw ZR police rounding up 49 drunk and rowdy school children who were said to be a danger unto themselves and others in the City Centre.
Prophet Bruce Edwards said “it is the church’s role alongside the parents to instil moral direction in these young children. The church is part of the wider community and these children are our children, Bulawayo is our city and we have to curb this evil and decadent behaviour before it destroys our children. Prayer is one positive step forward but much more needs to be done to fight this evil.”
Prophet Bruce Edwards’ called on the youth to abstain from sex and drugs touching on the subject of sexual abstinence a hot topic in this day and age of sexually transmitted diseases.
Not only is the understanding of abstinence gender based but literature has shown that there are gender-based differences in the primary reasons for sexual abstinence. While female adolescents may be more motivated to abstain due to a desire to avoid pregnancy, male adolescents abstain because they avoid STIs/HIV. The acceptance of abstinence as a prevention method for pregnancy and STIs for adolescents depends on their understanding of the concept, and since there are differences in young people’s understanding of abstinence, there is a need to explore this understanding among young people, hence interventions from the City fathers, the Church, the schools and most importantly the parents is particularly paramount at this stage.
