Maravi

'Stable families create a strong nation'

'Stable families create a strong nation'
By Editor
Friday May 16, 2008 [04:00]

Commemorating the International Day of families yesterday, many thoughts ran through our minds. The first thing that came to mind was the plight of the children on the street. And the other was the sexually abused child. These are issues which were yesterday eloquently talked about by our Minister of Community Development and Social Services, Catherine Namugala, and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.

Namugala urged fathers to cherish and take care of the family unit. She also urged fathers to play their role if this nation has to develop.
Namugala called on Zambians to avoid divorce, streetism and child neglect. She says it’s only by having stable families that we can create a strong nation.

We fully agree with Namugala. And without trying to sound like priests speaking from their pulpits, we are not and cannot be against the right to divorce, but we wish that there were more stability in the family, so the less divorce, the better. We say this because stability really helps the children who are the ones most affected and it helps the individual, for instance, to control one’s instincts. Nothing is gained by exacerbating them.

We also share the concerns raised by Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on domestic violence and sexual abuse. It is true that some fathers inflict domestic violence or even sexual abuse, devastating families and creating profound physical and emotional scars in children.

It is very sad that although reports of child defilement are occurring on almost a daily basis from nearly all parts of our country, very little appears to be put in place to protect children from such abominable abuse. What we should realise is that this repugnant behaviour of clearly heartless men has long-term effects on children, sometimes even fatal.

There have been reports of children not only getting infected with sexually transmitted diseases but some of them have died from such infections which have been as a result of sexual abuse, in some cases from very close relatives. Not only are the physical effects grave on abused children, as in the case where they acquire diseases such as STIs, but these children have to live with the pain of knowing that someone cruel enough not to care about their tenderness abused them.

And available statistics regarding child defilement in this country are not in any way impressive. Clearly, there is a huge battle that has to be fought and won on behalf of our children who are on a daily basis exposed to abuse by men who lack respect for life.

Everyone has a duty to make it a point that children are protected from any form of abuse. It is especially important that children are protected from defilement because such abuse destroys their lives, it leaves a permanent scar on their minds.

Children are a precious gift from God, the giver of life. This being the case, children deserve to be nurtured and loved by everyone, not just their parents. This is very important because the existence of any society is dependent on the smallest unit called the family.

The family is basically a group consisting of one or two parents and their children. Therefore, it can be said that societies are built by families. And the nature or character of society will largely depend on the nature or characters of the various families in that particular society.

What we are saying in short is that good families are more likely to form good societies just like bad ones are expected to form bad societies. That is why it is particularly important to pay more than the usual attention to the way children are cared for from the time they are born.

This is out of the realisation that a home must be built on solid foundation in the same way people do not normally build houses on water. Of course, building a child into a responsible citizen or adult requires a lot of work on the part of parents.

They have to inculcate good morals into their children as well as to teach them everything about life and living. When a child is well inducted into life, he or she will learn to be independent and to survive the storms of life.

For such a child, home will be where life is found in all its fullness. Home will be the place where this child will feel most contented, regardless of the location. On the other hand, a child who is not properly initiated into life by his or her parents will never know the importance of building good societies.

Such a child will be like one who is carried on the back and does not therefore know how far the journey is. Such a child will not be able to gauge how far it has travelled because it has not undertaken the journey itself. There is a lot that parents and guardians alike are expected to do in responsibly raising their children for the benefit of society.

Parents are expected to expose their children to good health facilities and provide them with good education so as to prepare them for future challenges and economically empower them.

Parents are also supposed to provide for their children materially. Therefore, it will be expecting too much to anticipate that children who lack these things can grow into good citizens to build a strong and admirable society. It cannot be denied that there is a general breakdown of families in our society for various reasons.

This is a direct result of the manner in which many families are bringing up their children. Is it any wonder then that today we have an unprecedented number of street children and many other vulnerable children in various orphanages across the country?

It is said that to give birth to children is to add on to oneself, and to society. As children grow up, parents are able to delegate some work to their children. In this way, children are perceived as an extension of their parents. Probably, that is why it is said that the youth of today is the leadership of tomorrow.

However, if the youth are poorly brought up, we can only expect poor leadership from them because one is only able to give what they have. If the youth of today are tomorrow's leaders, there is need, not only for parents, but also the youths themselves, to ensure that proper investment in such youths is done for thegood of the future.

The children or youths also have a great role to play by ensuring that they fully apply themselves at school, college or university. Today's world is fast changing. Without good education, it is impossible for anyone to be meaningful to themselves and society in general.

Therefore, much emphasis should be placed on good education because everything starts and ends with education. The world has seen how educated young men and women globally have greatly contributed to the development of science and technology in the last century. And of course, we all know that life, or everything we do on earth, is essentially centred around science and technology.

So the importance of good education in this regard cannot be over-stated. For anyone with good education, the sky is the limit. But for the less or not educated ones, there is very little they can do. In most cases, they end up being beggars up to the time they go to the grave. So let us all learn to care for our children. If we do not do this, we will have no society to talk about tomorrow.

We shouldn’t forget that the individual does best in a strong and decent community of people with principles and standards, common aims and values.

Labels: FAMILIES

posted by MrK @ 4:03 AM