Each time you and I read about incidence of baby dumping, we react this way: disgust, anger, sadness. We feel for the baby. Some of us find it in ourselves to feel for the teenage parents. Yet some find it in themselves to feel for the grandparents of the baby.

Some seek revenge in the form of capital punishment. Even a known lifelong advocate against capital punishment – has called for this to be applied on baby dumpers. No! Revenge is not the way. Neither is capital punishment.

As a People, what can we do? What should we do? Before we embark on plans to counter these incidences of baby dumping, we should consider the following. Tha:

1. Adults often speak about their human and other rights while neglecting the rights of children and the responsibility we owe them.

2. Freedom consists not in doing what we like but in having the right to do what we ought – Pope John Paul II

3. Baby-saving efforts must not only be about the mother-to-be but the father to be as well.

4. When we (parents) rely exclusively on the school education system and tuition teachers to educate our children, we are satisfying our wants. But when we make time - to also play an active role in educating our children ourselves, we become aware of their needs.

5. ‘(The lack of) sexuality and relationship education is directly linked to baby dumping. A society that forsakes the need for proper, wholesome education by placing too much emphasis on achieving academic excellence may satisfy a want but neglects a real and urgent need.

6. ‘To maintain a joyful family requires much more from both parents and the children. Each member of the family has to become in a special way, the servant of the others – Pope John Paul II.

Firstly - Love (hug and touch) our children and spend more time talking and playing with them. Be patient with them. Teach them to appreciate the advantages of self-discipline. Peruse their homework and do not hesitate to check the contents of their bags. If you don’t start doing this when they are six years old, how would they regard you when you start looking through their stuff for cigarettes and ganja when they already 16?

Secondly - Educate our children on sexuality and relationship education from as early as age eight. You could begin by teaching them how to respect the opposite sex.

Thirdly - Carry out baby-saving programmes such as creating a hotline for teenage parents-to-be – managed by trained adults of all races and religions. We must reach out to teenage parents and not judge them. Religion teaches us that ‘(We) all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’. Let the person who has never sinned be the one to cast the first stone.

Fourthly - Write to the leaders of our Great Nation. Whether to the prime minister, chief ministers, relevant ministers. Whether from Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat, it does not matter. Children can write to their teachers or speak to their parents. We must do something. This issue represents a clear and present danger.

Fifthly - Cut down on the time (you) spend on the Internet chatlines, Facebook and Twitter. Instead (with your children), spend more time to interact. Put on a loving look and make things sweeter.

Sixthly - For young working parents who send their children to babysitters during the working week and only see them on weekends, I urge you to take them home at least on two (additional) nights during the weekday. Even if the babysitters are your own parents or in-laws.

If you have a close relationship with your children, they will surely turn to you for help when faced with an unplanned pregnancy.