{III}.Responsibilities
to Special Groups Including HIV/AIDS Victims
The
Term Special Groups
Define
the term special groups
People with special needs. These are
people who are disadvantaged. They are unable to fulfill their civil
responsibilities therefore; they need special attention from able-bodied
people. Special groups are people with unusual problems that need special care
and treatment in the society. The following are some of the special groups:
Special Needs for Each Special Group
Identify special needs for each special group
Victims of HIV/AIDS: these are people who are infected with the human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV). This virus attacks the white blood cells, which
protect the human body from infections and diseases, like acquired immune
deficiency syndrome (AIDS). These people have special problems because the
disease has no vaccination and cure. They live in fear and are stigmatized by
some members of the society. Some of them are too sick to work and cannot
afford to meet their basic needs.
Women: they too have special problems because they are
underprivileged, oppressed, exploited and treated differently from men, simply
because “they are women”. They at times suffer from rape, female genital
mutilation and forced marriages, and they are not allowed to inherit or own
property. In addition, girls’ enrolment in schools is very low compared to
boys. All these practices are socially constructed.
Disabled people/handicapped: these are people with reduced function of particular body
organ(s) and, therefore, they are limited in what they can do, although, they
can do some tasks that are within their abilities. They are sometimes
stigmatised by the society. In most cases, they are unable to meet their basic
needs.
Refugees: these are people who are forced to leave their homeland
and live in other places. This forced migration can be due to various social or
political problems like war, drought or famine. Tanzania has received refugees
from Rwanda, Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Refugees lack
houses, nutritious food, social services like education and health, and they
suffer from loneliness due to family disintegration.
Orphans: these are children who have no parents. They lack parental
care and love. They can neither afford to meet their basic needs nor have
access to social services, like education and health.
The youth: these are young people who are not yet adults. They suffer
from problems related to their physiological and mental growth. Girls,
sometimes, suffer from early marriages and pregnancies while some boys abuse
drugs, smoke bhang/cigarettes or join bad groups.
Children: these are human beings who are below eighteen years of
age. They are unable to support themselves in terms of all their basic and
social needs. So they need special attention from parents and the entire
community in order for them to survive.
Street children: these are disadvantaged children who are forced to live a
miserable life in the streets due to various problems, such as poverty, family
disintegration, and the influence of bad youth groups, like those involved in
drug abuse. Sometimes these children engage in unlawful acts, such as,
prostitution, stealing, child labour, begging and petty. Business so as to earn
a living.
Elderly people (the aged): because of their age, they are physically unfit to work
effectively and earn a living. Therefore, they need assistance from the
able-bodied people.
Responsibilities Towards Special Group
Point out his/her responsibilities towards special group
As discussed above, each special
group has a wide range of problems. They need special assistance to provide for
their physical, biological, social and moral needs.
They need special attention because
of their disabilities, like when crossing roads, bicycles for the disabled,
holding their hands, etc. However, these needs differ from one special group to
another. It is, therefore, the responsibility of citizens to help each special
group.
Responsibilities of citizens to the disabled
The responsibilities of citizens to
the disabled are that: Citizens should encourage and help the disabled to
consider themselves as normal citizens and thus participate in different social
and economic activities in the society. Such activities may be running a petty
business, farming or looking after domestic animals, depending on the nature of
their disability. They should also never discriminate disabled people in
schools, workplaces and in the society in general.
The disabled should be assisted to
get basic needs, like food, clothing and housing. Citizens living near or with
such people should assist them in that way. Citizens should also help the
disabled to establish special centers where they can meet and share ideas and
undertake joint economic activities. This will reduce their loneliness while at
the same time making them productive as a group.
Group of people with special needs
Moreover, citizens should help the
disabled to form their own associations that will fight for their rights. They
should ensure that the disabled have access to social services like education,
health services, water, housing and electricity.
Responsibilities of citizens to refugees
Citizens are responsible to refugees
by providing humanitarian assistance. Basically this involves giving them food,
clothing and shelter. They must also provide them with basic social services,
like water, medical care and education for their children.
They are supposed to ask refugees to
refrain from any unlawful acts (offences) like banditry, smuggling, keeping
weapons and ammunition, rape and even unlawful correspondence with their home
countries. Citizens need also to prevent refugees from destroying the
environment. This involves preventing them from clearing forests for firewood
or practice sing poor farming methods.
Finally, citizens are responsible to
co-operate with the government and non-governmental organisations, including
the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), in taking care of
refugees until when they are ready to go back to their home-country
Responsibilities of citizens to HIV/IDS victims
Citizens are responsible to advise
and help the HIV/AIDS victims to receive counselling and guidance from
professional counselors. Also, citizens are responsible to advise and assist
them to attend clinics in various medical centers.
In addition, they are not supposed
to isolate or stigmatize them, rather show them love, concern and encourage
them to have hope. This is because to be infected with HIV does not mean that
one will die soon. They should also take trouble to support the victims
financially so that they can get the required diet. Finally, citizens are
responsible to visit their homes and give them company and other things to
reduce their boredom and sense of loneliness.
Responsibilities of citizens to
women
Citizens are responsible to protect
women through abolishing bad traditions and customs that oppress and exploit
women in the society, such as FGM, beating women, early marriages, forced
marriages, polygamy, and the inheritance of widows, laws forbidding women from
inheriting property, denial of equal educational opportunities for girls. They
are also responsible for helping women to form co-operative groups which can
seek funds from the government or NGOs to engage in meaningful and productive
activities.
Citizens need to ask the government
to provide women with better transport and communication systems, clean and
safe water and health services,Women should be educated so that they can
realize their rights in the society, hence, promote equality between men and
women in education, politics, employment, division of labor in the family, and
even in religious institutions.
Responsibilities of society to the aged
As the number of old people
increases in Tanzania, our society ought to help them. This can be through
buying them foodstuffs or showing them how they can grow some of the food crops
near their homes. Also citizens are supposed to provide them with comfortable
clothing and bedding so as to keep their bodies warm, especially at night.
They need to involve the aged in
organisations where they can share views with other people. This helps them to
reduce loneliness, hence, stay mentally active. They are also responsible to
assist them in getting medical care and train them to refrain from unhealthy
habits like smoking.
They are responsible to help the
aged remain physically fit by educating them on the importance of undertaking
physical exercise like walking, gardening, cycling and swimming.
Citizens are supposed to love them
and give them encouragement so that, despite their problems, they may still
have hope for a better life. We should show them that they are still valued
despite their old age. Finally, if possible for old homes, new homes should be
built for the aged, especially those who have no family members to take care of
them.
Responsibilities of the society to street children
Citizens ought to help street
children through showing them love and hospitality by giving them parental care
and trying to adopt some of them so as to assist them closely. They are also
needed to provide them with the basic necessities, like food, clothing and shelter.
Charities and religious
organisations should assist street children by giving them good moral guidance
and even supporting them materially. Joining or forming organisations aimed at
supporting street children morally and materially.
Responsibilities of citizens to the youth
Some of the responsibilities of
citizens to the youth are to ask the government to change the traditional trend
of our educational system so that it teaches the youth how to employ themselves
instead of educating them for white-collar jobs only.
Citizens are also supposed to ask
the government to increase the opportunities for secondary, technical and
tertiary education. To expand and strengthen the informal sector through
co-operation with the government so that it provides more employment.
Furthermore, citizens are supposed
to help the youth to initiate cooperative economic activities like carpentry or
gardening. Lastly, they need to assist the youth to take part in sports and
games so as to promote co-operation, love, friendliness and good health among
them.
Responsibilities of citizens to
orphans
As stated earlier, orphans get
frustrated as they lack parental care and love. To orphans, citizens ought to
provide them with basic assistance that will help them to go to school. This may
involve paying for their school materials like books, uniforms, bus fare or
even meals at school.
Also, citizens need to provide the
orphans with health-care services including paying for their treatment when
they are sick and giving them medical advice, and providing them with basic
social services like food, clothing and shelter.
In addition, citizens are
responsible for showing them love and care, since these are the things orphans
lack most. They need to be adopted and be given material and moral support.
Responsibilities of citizens to
children
Like other special groups, children,
have many problems. They are unable to provide themselves with basic needs like
food, clothing and shelter. Also, they cannot afford social services, like
education, health, water, housing and transport. They need love and care from
either parents or guardians.
Citizens have the responsibility to
ensure that children get education, especially primary education which is
provided free in Tanzania. Parents, in particular, should send their children
to school and make sure that their attendance at school is good. They need
clean and safe water, health care, and be taught good manners so that they can
grow up to be good citizens in the future.
Children should not be subjected to
child labour or any child abuse. For example, using of children to fight in
wars, for commercial sex work, to work in quarries and mines or to do
lumbering. They should get time to enjoy playing games and doing sports both at
school and in other places demarcated for such activities.
Children are supposed to be educated
on how to avoid dangerous behaviours like unsafe sex, smoking bhang and abusing
drugs. Unsafe sex can lead them to getting infected with HIV/AIDS. They need
also to be taught the importance of hard-work both at school and at home, where
they should assist their parents in some manual works.
Activity 2
Visit the nearby Centre for special
group:
- What special group is that Centre for?
- What are their responsibilities?
- How can you help those special groups?
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