Analysis Wake Up OGs! Address the Issue, Not the Headline!

The piece in yesterday’s paper calling on the Old Girls of schools such as Adi Cakobau School to get off social media and reach out to the young girls currently studying there seems to have hit a raw nerve. We understand that some old girls including a politician took to social media whining about our story and the subsequent analysis.

Let’s get one thing straight- the problem in Fiji is that we have people like this OG politician who wants us to whitewash issues which are of an inconvenience to them. Sorry, the sun does not revolve around them.

Fact is that young girls are getting pregnant, foetuses are being hidden or discarded, young women have had to take these steps because they felt they had no one to talk to, no one to reach out to.

No amount of denying these facts changes anything.

This is not about Adi Cakobau

School.

This is about the young girl who was left all alone to deal with a full term pregnancy.

This is about encouraging hundreds of other young girls to speak out, to call the 1325 number and discuss their issues with professionals. This is about stopping other young girls from needing to hide their pregnancies.

Stop for a minute and think about it. This could be your daughter tomorrow.

Until when are we going to pretend that everything is hunky dory among our youth?

No matter how much you try to pretend, young Fijians as young as 13-years-old are having sex.

You can keep them under lock and key, but let’s not pretend that normal teenagers are NOT exploring their sexuality and are having sex. And, to the OGs out there, you are not helping the young scholar by WHITE WASHING THE ISSUE AND MAKING THE FIJI SUN THE TARGET ON THE SOCIAL MEDIA. GIVEN THAT the OG politician IS AN OLD SCHOLAR, IT’S INCUMBENT OF HER TO TAKE THIS ISSUE HEAD ON RATHER THAN TURNING THIS INTO A POLITICAL FOOTBALL.