A pastor at Makeni Villa’s Christ the Way Pentecostal Church in Lusaka, has advised the youths in the area to desist from abusing alcohol and lazy lifestyles.
Pastor Chola Mwansa told the Sun in an interview that young persons needed to change their lifestyles because it was capable of disturbing their lifestyles.
He announced that his church would soon embark on a programme to rehabilitate children addicted to alcohol.
He said that the main aim of the programme is to realign their minds into positive thinking.
“My heart breaks each time I see these young people drinking and being lazy with their lives while their parents simply watch and do not seem to be bothered,” he said.
The pastor said that raising children in the right manner was not the responsibility of the parents alone but also for the community and even the church.
Meanwhile, some parents in the area have blamed the bar owners for their children’s misbehavior saying they opened the bars earlier than was stipulated and sold alchol to underage persons.
One of the parents, Mr Thomas Nyndwa, said that it was not easy to always monitor the children’ day to day activities especially teenagers.
“You can beat these children to try and instill discipline in them after you go for work, they still go to the bars and drink alcohol,” he said.
Another parent, a Ms Simukoko, appealed to the council and the police to patrol the area and arrest those operating bars outside the stipulated times.
“It will be better if the council can be doing some weekly inspections of these bars because most of them open as early as 7 hours in the morning and close at mid-night so the children are tempted to drink alcohol early in the morning when they see their friends drink,” Ms Simukoks said.