As the number of cases of knife crime in the UK increases, and journalists are running out of adjectives to describe the anger and frustration of the general public, and the efforts of the police seem at rock bottom to stem it, how frighteningly further can the efforts still fall before solutions are found? And what is the role of parents, the church, and other relevant institutions within the black community in stopping the flow of blood among its own youths?

The general manager of African Caribbean Resource Centre in Plaistow, East London, David Idiabana, says he is disarming the young ones in his own community of knives and blades through a series of youth programmes in place at the centre. He says: “We believe that the enormous amount of time the youth of today have doing nothing tangible can be curtailed by the kinds of programmes we’ve put in place here.

“Recently, we had a seminar to pave the way for the young ones here to express themselves in order to find the root cause of why some of them are not doing well in the community.

“We invited the police and parents. Most of the children invited complained that their parents didn’t have time for them. Some said they lacked father-figures in their homes. Some said they were not respected, which was why they carried arms to command that respect.

“We now worked through the complaints to see how we could come in. We responded by organising indoor sports events, believing that the programmes will keep the participating youths off the streets, and that some of the participants may grow to develop distinguished careers out of what they learn here and become empowered to be useful to their families and society.

“Every Monday, we have judo and taekwondo clubs. On Wednesday, there is another lesson in judo and on Thursday, a dance lesson. Each event lasts two hours. We also organise services for children. We take care of children until their parents finish work or come back from school. We run vocational studies and so on. During holidays, we also have special programmes for children.”

Idiabana, Executive MBA, who has been running the African Caribbean Resource Centre since 2003 says the only complaint of the youths he is not capable of addressing is the so-called ‘father role modelling’ which he says is not his place to suggest that women should stay with their husbands.

“But for those who are yet to be mothers, we feel safe to tell them to know their partners well enough before embarking on short time enjoyment, but long time pain,” the Resource Centre chief says.

Obeng De Lawrence, the pastor of Campus Fellowship at the University of East London, while commenting on the role the church can play in inculcating church discipline into the children of the faithful, says the church of today is in a difficult position to play a meaningful role because of glorification of wealth which has changed the core message of the church.

In the UK, black people rank high among church-goers. In London alone, there are several hundreds of churches owned by black people and where mostly blacks congregate to worship in an atmosphere of rock concert, hand clapping and fervent hymn singing. But does this orientation have any positive influence on the children of the faithful? If not, then, where have the Christian values and doctrines gone?

Tunde Adeola, 42, a chartered accountant and a devout Christian father of two in Belfast, says: “The church is already in trouble because of the infiltration of con-artists, posing as men of God today. The smooth-tongue pastors and preachers have no time to preach Christian values and isms to their congregation. All they have time for is to steal from the faithful to fund their grasping greed and extravagant lifestyle.”

Pastor Obeng agrees: “You can’t serve both God and Mammon. The Bible instructs us how to raise a child: ‘Show the child the way to follow, and when he grows up, he will not depart from it.’ So the church is required to lay a very strong biblical foundation in children. ‘The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.’ And that foundation must be the fear of God.

“We grew up with church discipline. We knew the consequence of breaking the Ten Commandments – thou shall not kill, thou shall not steal …

“But that message has been abandoned. We’ve moved on to the contemporary message that ‘come to church and all your problems will be solved.’ We continue to lay emphasis on materialism. And those with itching ears continue to follow in their hundreds. With this, the Christian principles are lost. And our children don’t know why they shouldn’t steal and why they shouldn’t kill.”

However, the church can still rediscover itself, according to Obeng. He says the Church of England is in a position to influence government policies for raising a child to reflect the instruction in the Bible, adding that most members of parliament are Christians and members of the church.

Government policy, according to the clergyman, can strengthen or weaken the institution of marriage, adding that a lot of children on the streets today are products of broken homes, with single mothers, many of whom are too young to be mothers.

“What do you expect from a society so set up that once you have a child you are better off without the man? A family struggling to make ends meet doesn’t receive help, except one of them isn’t there. Without help, it’s extremely difficult for a family to live on the income of one person, pay the mortgage and look after the children’s education.”

Obeng continues: “This can bring a lot of tension to the family. And once that happens, it’s enough for the woman to call the police and say, ‘Come and get rid of this man.’ Now as a single mother, the government rushes in to provide material benefits. You may not even be allowed to see your own children, and what becomes of them is what we are witnessing today in terms of high level of crime.”