The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection has marked the International Day of Families to celebrate the importance of family in the development of a nation.
The Sector Minister, Madam Otiko Afisa Djaba, in a statement indicated that the International Day provides an opportunity to promote awareness of issues relating to families and to increase knowledge of the social, economic and demographic processes affecting families.
She indicated that this year’s celebration which falls on 15th of May under theme, “Families, education and well-being” focuses on the role of families and family-oriented policies in promoting education and overall well-being of their members.
Otiko Djaba added that the day is to raise awareness of the role of families in promoting early childhood education and lifelong learning opportunities for children and youth.
“The Day highlights the importance of all caregivers in families, be they parents, grandparents or siblings and the importance of parental education for the welfare of children,” she stated.
According to her, the family system plays a very important role in the life of everybody from birth to death adding that families teach children about habits, discipline which not only help them to find a job but also help them to live holistic lives in future.
“So the family is very important for children. New born babies see their parents first and thereafter spend most of their time with their families until they go to school,” she intimated.
The sector minister noted that the family is very important because it stays with us in any situation especially where parents or sisters or brothers are the only ones who will stay with their children in hard and difficult times.
Otiko Djaba posited that the family system has witnessed some major changes across the world in recent decades including changes to marriages, changes to partnerships and changes to children and families.
She stressed that the changes in the family system outlined above have created a lot of problems for individuals home and abroad.
The Gender Minister emphasised that her outfit, as part of measures to strengthen families, has come out with two major Policies (Child and Family Welfare Policy and Justice for Children Policy) where the family have a big role to play in protecting children which will also in tern promote the wellbeing of the Family.
