The Editor, Sir:

Children are the future, the door to the next generation; the most vulnerable ones in this dreaded society of ours. How often do we pass children sleeping on the steps of businesses places and sidewalks?

How often do we see children wiping windshields, selling bag juice, biscuits etc., at a time when they should be in a home sleeping or at school learning? How often do we hear of children being used or abused by their parents? How often do we hear of children left at home alone to take care of themselves? How often do we hear a single mother of six, seven, or eight, seeking help?

Children should not be sleeping on sidewalks or wiping car windshields, which is not a form of employment, and even if it is, minors under the law should not be working. Children should not be left to the mercy of the society; they should be loved and cared for by their parents, guardians, or the state through children's homes and places of safety set up by the Government. It is so sad that the children's are the ones left to suffer from their parents' carelessness or misfortune.

Women who don't have a source of income just lay around, get pregnant, then the father is missing; then the cycle is repeated in order to take care of the first child, then the second, then the third. Fathers who don't know how to control their sexuality, get a woman pregnant, don't know the first thing about parenting, leave the woman, then the children are left to fend for themselves. This cannot be the way forward for our children.

Children need love and attention and they have the right to be cared for. It should not only be Child Month, which is held once per year, special emphasis is placed on children, and big speeches are made by politicians about what will be done to help street children, fix up schools, etc., and two months later, it's back to square one. If we love our children, we should take more interest in their well-being, see to it that they attend school, and take them off the roads and out of the markets. Leave them in the care of competent adults. The neglect of our children has to stop.

Parents, the onus is on you, first to be responsible and think wisely of the choices you make. Children are not toys and they have rights. If you cannot take care of a child, please don't have one.

I am, etc.,

HEZEKAN BOLTON

h_e_z_e@hotmail.com

Spring Village St Catherine

Via Go-Jamaica