English
Kinyarwanda
Youth from the Pentecostal Church of Rwanda (ADEPR) in Ngororero District have been urged to join the ongoing campaign against drug abuse, domestic and gender based violence and human trafficking, which are said to be affecting the young generation.
The call was made on December 9 by Inspector of Police (IP) Alexandre Minani, the District Community Liaison Officer of Ngororero, during in a half day awareness session with over 300 youth members of ADEPR in the district.
The meeting organized by Ngororero Police Unit and ADEPR focused on enlightening the youth on the current crime trends and their role in community policing.
During the exercise that started with a ‘Walk against crime’, the young generation was sensitized on crimes and threats posed by drug abuse, domestic violence and human trafficking.
IP Minani observed that majority of those involved in drug abuse are the youth, which is an indicator that, if the vice is not fought against, it will be a threat to future generations.
He added that drug abuse leads to, among others, unwanted pregnancies, drunkenness, assault and school drop-outs.
He instead urged them to refrain from such bad and criminal behaviours and be part of anti-crime initiatives such as neighborhood watch, provide timely information about anything that might affect the security of their community.
“Although we are seeing a tremendous decrease in drug dealings, our target is to have a society that is free of illicit drugs and the general public’s role in this campaign is paramount to report those individuals that are still involved,” he noted.
IP Minani further spoke at length about human trafficking urging the youth to not listen to anyone who promises them decent jobs abroad adding that this is one of the tricks traffickers employ to manipulate their targets to traffic them to other countries where they are traded as commodities to be used in hard labour and sexual exploitation.
“Normally, a trafficker will tell you not to tell anyone about the deal, while on the journey to the imaginary job they will confiscate all your identifications and the next thing is you will be subjected to forced labour or sexual exploitation,” he said.
He went on to add that domestic and gender based violence has a major impact not only on the victims but also on the nation.
“There has been a decrease in such crimes…unlike before, today we are seeing more people reporting injustices of GBV, we encourage you to report such crime whenever they occur,” he said.
Pastor Jean Paul Mutabazi thanked Rwanda National Police for the lectures saying that the message helps youth to become better citizens.
One of the youth that took part in the campaign, Cyprien Nsengiyaremye said, “We pledge to cooperate with the police to wipe out these crimes in our society and also share the knowledge we have acquire here with our colleagues who didn’t attend this event,” said
