Grade 8, Ikageng
Human rights are very important, especially during the time of COVID-19. There are lot of young people out there who need jobs, but because of this COVID-19, they cannot get employment during this time. So the problem with young people is that they give up too fast and then become prostitutes, selling their bodies to get money and provide food for their families. That is illegal and should police find you, you will go to jail. It’s not right because some young generations out there will think it’s a right thing.
Lindokuhle is a 20-year old woman who already has a university certificate, but is still not employed. Lindokuhle tried all her best to get a job before this COVID-19 affected our lives. Even now, with this COVID-19, she was busy looking for a job, but not able to find one and is still not employed. She’s sad because she’s sick and tired of staying in her grandmother’s house with her young siblings. She felt like she’s being irresponsible and that her siblings are laughing at her. So she decided to go to Instagram and communicate with Drug dealers and take a job of being a prostitute. They said she must take a picture to see the shape of her body.
Lindokuhle took naked pictures and sent them. Then they said she can come and work for them. Lindokuhle got excited about getting a job. The drug dealers said she must firstly go and eat people’s poop. Lindokuhle said she will do whatever because she needs that money so much to provide food, school uniforms, electricity and water for her siblings and her grandmother.
Lindokuhle did that and got paid. The R10 million that they gave Lindokuhle is from the drugs which they were selling to schoollearners, and from crossing borders to other countries and selling drugs to get money. That work is illegal. So Lindokuhle was always excited about her job. The next day the police found those drug dealers and arrested them and they got a life sentence.
Lindokuhle lost her job. She thought that the job would save her life but now that they got arrested, her life was over. She was surviving with that job. Her family thought that she got the job because of the way she looked and the way she was supporting her family. Lindokuhle was no longer staying with her family, but she was booking hotels. She was booking hotels because she was paid a lot of money, but now the money is gone.
So Lindokuhle decided to become a prostitute and sell her body. Lindokuhle was not enjoying what she was doing, because she was doing it every day. It was painful for her when she saw the other young people who are 20 years’ old driving cars and having their own companies. That made her realise that she still has an opportunity to go and find a legal job. So Lindokuhle did not want to work as a prostitute anymore because sleeping with different men will make you sick.
So Lindokuhle wanted help. She met a person who worked with people who are disturbed and who had done a lot of wrong things. Lindokuhle had a conversation with that person who is helping people. She realised that she has a right to get social grant money, an RDP house and food. So that person said to her that she is abusing herself by being a prostitute and sleeping with many men. She was very close to even having a stroke because of having so many problems that she cannot handle by herself.
She went to Ikageng to get help for social grant money. They gave her papers to sign, then she went to other places where they helped her to get an RDP house. She thought it was hard to get all of those things, but it was actually very easy. She then went back to college and improved her career in the right way. After these studies, she got employed. She was so excited because it was her first time getting employed and getting a legal job to support her family. After all she went through, she changed her life by doing the right things.
She said, ‘I now realise that human rights are very important and must be respected always. So you see people, a book about rights does a lot of good things that I did not know about.’ Our rights cannot be fulfilled because people are being abused, some are homeless, some don’t have food, some need money to support their families and some want places to stay like RDP houses. We are tired of living in shacks where there is no electricity, water and grants.
So it is important to have limitations to freedom of speech because you cannot be called names that you don’t like, just because you were trying your best to support your family. Poverty affects people’s dignity when they are poor, and people look down on you, even though you try to say something, they do not want to listen to you, this is sad. We need to treat each other with respect and as equals.