" children's smoking is a compounded danger threatening their lives.
Yemen Children Platform:
Special Report - Samah Emlaq.
“It was the biggest shock in the history of my motherhood in 15 years,” this is how Iyad’s mother described her feeling when she found her child with a cigarette in his hand in one of the alleys of the DarSaad area in Aden Governorate.
At that moment, the mother recognized that her son Iyad (13 years old) had started smoking three months ago.
He revealed to her the names of his five friends with whom he secretly smokes, the eldest of whom is Fawaz (15 years old).
Her son used to justify the smell of smoke every time with some excuse
This is what Iyad's mother told the “Yemen’s Children” platform.
At first, she believed him, but she decided to monitor him after noticing strange behaviors that were beginning to appear on him.
When she did, she was completely shocked, then she asked herself several times: Is this her real son?!
recently, The phenomenon of smoking among children has spread, and the causes and roots vary according to individual cases, in light of the absence of efforts that study the roots of this problem, in addition to the difficulty of reaching numbers of children addicted to smoking.
Stories from reality
"Dozens of underage girls gather on the shisha" in full view of the parents.
this behavior has become a fashion for girls and boys of the generation.
the serious pause must be taken to raise awareness of the harms of this custom in schools, Evening Celebrations, and homes themselves," says the educator. Ishraq Hakim, from Sana'a. Not
Not all parents are fortunate, capable, and attentive to their children's behavior, and leniency in their control leads the child to be affected by the harmful environment for his health.
For this reason, Umm Iyad took the initiative to inform the mothers of the children she knew, attempting to reach a common educational solution. Fawaz's mother told her that she noticed her child's smoking addiction, and was trying to secretly deter his father, fearing that the father was angry and violent, but unconsciously found herself covering him up. While Raafat's mother, 12, agreed on Immediate measures.
Urgent measures.
The three mothers met to find out the reasons, and they provided a comfortable atmosphere for the three children to give their information easily, and the result, according to them, was that Fawaz loved to imitate a foreign actor famous for buying cigarettes. The seller refused to sell it in Al-Hara grocery store, but bought it from another booth, claiming it was for his father, so the seller gave him, spontaneously, his peers imitated him, including Ahmed (14 years old), who tries to imitate his smoker father, and steals the cigarette from his pocket
The origin of the habit
around this phenomenon, the associate professor of child mental health at the Faculty of Education at Taiz University, Professor Jibril Al-Braihi, says that the spread of smoking among children is a serious health and social problem that requires everyone, in the family, school and society, to address it, because of its harm to children’s health.
He explained that this habit "starts in early childhood, when the child imitates the behavior of others without awareness, and it spreads more at the school." Professor Al-Braihi attributes the spread of the phenomenon to several reasons, the most important of which are: the absence of oversight in the home and school, the absence of a good model, the imitating adults, particularly smokers, and the excessive pampering that may push children to smoke as a kind of entertainment and rebellion against parents, in addition To the bad guys. He added that the absence of censorship of tobacco sellers, family disputes that lead to divorce and the destruction of the family that resulting to a deviation of children, and also the absence of real awareness campaigns for children in schools about the dangers and harms of smoking are among the most important reasons. While Umm Raafat says that there are games that create this curiosity to smoke, as well as some candies that are made in the form of a cigarette, and one of the causes of child corruption is returns to them.
Expressing her gratitude to Umm Iyad, who alerted her to her son's condition.
Smoking causes severe health damage to adults, and ironically, these health implications are written on the same smoking box itself by manufacturers, (smoking is a major cause of heart disease, cancers and atherosclerosis), but
its dangers are doubled for children.
The professor of pediatrics at Hadhramaut University, Prof. Mazen Ahmed Jawas, says that the harms of smoking and shisha on children are extreme and double. Because it leads to low children's weight and sudden infant death syndrome. In addition to respiratory problems such as frequent coughing, sore throat and bronchitis. In addition to frequent allergies, flu, sinusitis, and cardiovascular disease, the most dangerous of which are cancers. Professor Jawas adds that the sense of smell is affected by children, and their ears and eyes are inflamed and blind. In addition to the cognitive and behavioral effects such as low intelligence, low learning skills and scholastic level
by emphisizing that shisha is more dangerous than smoking a cigarette, and that one stone is equivalent to two or more packs of cigarettes. Jawas advises to abstain from smoking in children's whereabouts, and to educate children about the need to stay away from people who smoke or use a shisha, and most importantly prevent the sale of cigarettes to children through enacting laws.
Parent's responsipilty
Shaima Shamsan, also stresses the need for parents to realize that the child is trying to embody the role of an adult human being, and this innate tendency is used by bad companions to lure them into harmful habits, the most dangerous of which is smoking.” She also advises, in her speech to the "Children of Yemen" platform the parents to avoid beatings and insults completely, and to hint at the harms of smoking in a way that is embodied and extensive, such as visiting sick children, and clarifying that the reason is smoke in an open discussion in front of the child .
It stresses the importance of awareness so that the problem does not worsen. Recommended to attend counseling courses, even via the Internet, monitor the child's surroundings and friendships, pull the children into a true friendship circle with his parents, fill the child's emptiness with activities that their child tends to, whatever they are, and to deal with him as an adult who has his Independent choices and decisionsin so that he does not have to find his value among invalid friends when he misses it in the home.
Prevention and treatment
Professor Jibril Al-Braihi stresses the need to provide parental control and continuous coordination between them in favor of correcting the child's behavior, in addition to providing purposeful recreational facilities that occupy the child with what benefits him. He called too for enacting laws and legislation obligating merchants not to sell prohibited and harmful items to children.
[ ] He stresses the importance of implementing awareness and guidance campaigns by the Ministry of Health in schools, about the dangers of smoking and its harm to children's health, adding that coordination of the duties of the Ministry of Health and Education. He stressed the responsibility of the Ministry of Midea to monitor the means that broadcast propaganda materials that promote smoking in the community.
For her part, Shaima Shamsan suggests the implementation of family trips, and the involvement of the child with the parental community to cultivate values in addition to discover and encourage the talents and inclinations of the child, such as drawing, music, sports and reading. as well as providing an appropriate atmosphere for the development of child's hobbies. Stressing the importance of creating a large space for dialogue inside the home, morover measures that would prevent and treat at the same time.
