麻豆社

Good morning,

Earlier this week I was with a family whose 15 year old son was stabbed and killed a few months ago. When I first heard what had happened, my immediate thought went to his family, but especially to his mother. As a mother myself, I wondered how would she cope with this, he will surely always be her baby.

It strikes me that so often, the young people who find themselves caught in the cycle of knife crime, have not thought through the impact their actions may have on their families, particularly their mothers.

Ironically when I have listened to young men in prison who have been caught dealing drugs or armed robbery or similar, they regularly mention their mothers as being such an important person to them, how all they had wanted was to give their mum more money or a better life.

Every now and again a story makes the news, hits the headlines, we shake our heads, give our condolences and then we move on. It hasn鈥檛 affected us personally so it doesn鈥檛 have an impact.

In the Qur鈥檃n there is a powerful verse that teaches if we 鈥榮ave a life it is as if we have saved all of humanity and if we take a life it is like we have killed all of humanity鈥�

I spoke to a Head teacher recently who is doing excellent work over and above the running of his school, trying to keep his students safe and to help them understand the dangers, when they leave the school gate. But he can鈥檛 do that alone.

I believe that women in particular have a powerful role to work more on this together, to hold hands with grieving mothers and to bring communities together.
Knife crime and gang culture does not discriminate, anyone can be affected.

Where I live, there is a large trading estate. International and local companies, successful in so many fields but how much are they actually connected with local young people who need more support?

I think there is a disconnect, which surely means there are opportunities for more to be done. A local youth worker recently performed a spoken word piece. In it he pointed out, 鈥渢he fastest growing industry on the trading estate is data. And yet with all that knowledge there, we still don鈥檛 know how to treat each other鈥�

Young people often just need a mentor, someone to listen to them, to open doors, to help them know they are valued. So even when the stories are not making the national news, there is always work to do.

I feel, the moment we shrug our shoulders and tell ourselves that is just the way it is, we have all lost.

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