Education

Need for peer support among young people to prevent suicides

by

Most people live with serious mental health problems without their knowledge, and as such with time their situations become severe, leading to extremes such as self-harm and suicide. While globally the African continent has among the least numbers of cases, it does not make it a less serious issue. This is because human life is involved.

We must agree that people are built and groomed differently and as such have varying capacities inasmuch as handling of pressure and stressful situations is concerned. What can be a non-issue to one can be a big problem to another, leading them to anxiety, losing a sense of value of their own lives or even feeling hopeless about themselves.

Wanted Urgently: Concerted public effort to reduce single-use plastics

by

Speaking of use of single-use plastics, we need policies that strictly forbid entry of unnecessary plastics, especially in packagings.

We need to more and more invest in biodegradable packaging, especially for consumables like foods and drinks. About 40 per cent of plastic waste has a connection with food and drinks.

Fatherhood and fruitful engagement in early childhood development

by

Early childhood shapes the foundation for emotional, cognitive, and social growth, yet many Tanzanian children grow up without active fathers, especially in low-income and single-parent households. Studies reveal that over half of Tanzanian children experience developmental delays, while 80 percent of single parents are mothers. Experts stress that fatherhood is irreplaceable in shaping confidence, identity, and moral values. Promoting gender equality and child well-being, therefore, requires redefining fatherhood and strengthening men’s engagement in parenting from the earliest years.

WORLD DAY OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY | The necessity of passing on cultural philosophies for young people today

by

rom our cultural philosophies, at least shared across the people of African origin, both those within the continent and those in diaspora, the sense of community is deep and strong; as the Ubuntu philosophy for example says “I am because we are.”

When young people are taught that this is our way of life they grow with a reflection to own this new sense of being as a backdrop and a springboard from which they bounce as well as make sense of their life.

Do we proudly cherish our African Heritage and make it seen?

by

What happened to the African values which have set grounds for what we regard as our social morals? Do they still stand as ideals to measure ourselves by? If yes, do we still communicate that to our generations? There are wars today in many African countries, and most of these countries have deep knowledge of conflict resolution in their cultural wisdom, and have riddles, jokes and adages communicating a whole wide range of interesting ideas about peace. If culture does not inform our deeper convictions about human values the discontinuity is a dangerous black hole.

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF STREET CHILDREN | Is the vulnerable child of today the offender of tomorrow?

by

When the system has poor incentives to guide young people to be productive and engaged in the society, even after they have been integrally formed well in their homes they can lose it all as they switch into the survival mode of the streets.

Countries with lowest crime rates have the best job security as well. In Tanzania, many individuals currently in correctional facilities (prisons) might not be there if meaningful employment opportunities had been available. It is a big problem to accept our kind of frustrating joblessness as a social dynamic, even among those who are educated.

How emojis influence emotional communication today

by

With the widespread use of computer mediated communication devices and these emojis, it is worth exploring how much, or rather in what ways, our emotional communication is influenced by emojis. Most emotion related emojis and emoticons (emotional icons) communicate these emotions only in a general sense and cannot really touch the unexplored territories of dynamic human emotions and feelings.

INTERVIEW | “A Child is a Free Mind”: Author Corona Kimaro Cermak on Storytelling, Identity, and Tanzanian Children’s Literature

by

My African heritage plays a crucial role in my storytelling. My Swahili culture and language largely constitutes my identity as a storyteller. ven though my children are half Czech, and half Tanzanian, they are blended in both cultures in a beautiful way. I believed by them having Swahili language and cultural awareness they will appreciate more the half of who they are, and be happy and free, when they visit Tanzania.

Collective and urgent duty to safeguard mother languages (Part 1)

by

Children can be encouraged to learn foreign languages even without being told their mother languages are not good enough. This way they will keep their love towards their mother languages and will not feel shameful to use them.

Need to protect traditional artists from AI and ‘modern art’

by

While traditional visual artists have so much value in the work done, the social media art appreciation is being taken over by the AI artists who invest nothing in their designs, and have no emotional connection with such art works. Traditional visual artists deserve more admiration and support than the AI artists who are not personally involved in the production of the artworks.