Govt commends parenting programme
Government says it is the duty of both authorities and parents to ensure quality upbringing of children to stimulate sustainable development in the country.
Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social welfare Mary Shaba said this on Wednesday when she opened the 2013 parenting conference in Mangochi under the theme ‘Understanding Realities of Teenage Parenting: A special Focus on Adolescent Girls and Boys with Parenting Responsibilities’.
Shaba said government has passed a number of legislations to ensure children are protected.
She said parents must contribute towards the welfare of children by providing parental care, guidance and being open to the children on issues of sexuality.
“If children are not given correct information on issues of sexuality, they get misled by their peers and end up falling into problems of early parenthood,” she said.
Speaking earlier, Youth Net and Counselling (Yoneco) board chairperson, Professor Dixie Maluwa said the conference was set to strengthen focus on parenting issues.
“Every family with its habits, practices and routines is a child’s first classroom. In most cases, for better or for worse parents are often a child’s most influential and important teachers,” said Maluwa.
The two-day long conference was organised by Yoneco jointly with Parenting Network Africa (PAN).
This comes after the organisation sensitised parents in Mangochi and Machinga to parenting issues.
The delegates came from Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Tanzania, Namibia, Botswana and Britain.
