Positive parenting is at the heart of the awareness and advocacy programs facilitated by the Child Services Unit of the Ministry of Social Welfare, Women and Poverty Alleviation.
This was reiterated by the Assistant Director Child Services Unit, Ms Ela Tukutukulevu during her presentation at the Social Justice Seminar organised by the Saint Agnes Parish in Suva recently.
Ms Tukutukulevu said Government has partnered with the UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) to create awareness in the communities on the importance of parental role in raising healthy children.
She said the facilitation package called, “Children Are a Precious Gift from God Facilitation Manual” is one of the instrumental tools available in creating awareness on positive parenting.
“Launched in 2012, the package is designed to build on community appreciation of children and drawing their attention on some of the issues which children face in their development.
“It targets community leaders, faith-based leaders, parents and care-givers to identify ways in which they can better deal with issues on child protection and care. The package facilitates discussions with communities on issues of child welfare, using the theme “children are a gift from god” as an entry point to get the communities to take ownership of creating supportive and conducive environment for children,” Ms Tukutukulevu said.
“A key aspect of the package is on positive parenting, positive discipline, types of problems faced by children and we have tried to bring it under the umbrella that children are precious and their welfare and care is of utmost priority.
“There are contextualized tools to create awareness aligned to child protection and without the community commitment to address the reality of issues that influence children protection, we cannot responsibly nurture our children. The package challenges our mindsets as parents, leaders and mentors in the communities,” she said.
Ms Tukutukulevu said so far the Ministry has already reached out to more than 50 communities through 16 trainings on the facilitation package and the way forward for 2014 is to strengthen partnership with relevant stakeholders to raise awareness on child protection in Fiji.
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