By NATALIE LAVI
The most valuable resource in a community is our children.
This was according to the Minister for Community Development Dame Carol Kidu in her speech at the World Childrens’ Day celebration at the Sioni Kami Memorial church last week.
“Society suffers through neglect of children,” she said, adding one thing she has leant from her late mother in-law is that Western society has lost the knowledge that the family is so important.
“True family is not just father, mother and children, it includes both grand parents as well,” she said.
Dame Carol stressed the importance of family unity, saying if we continue to let the family fall apart, the Government would not step in to provide social welfare.
Leah Kelo, a Grade eight student at Hohola Demonstration who was selected by the National Broadcasting Commission panel to give a speech on behalf of every child in the country, said; “Regardless of whether what every parent affords is small or less, all parents have the responsibility to provide for their children.”
Children from Joyce Bay under the Port Moresby Vulnerable Children project attended the celebration.
Also present were national director for Caritas PNG Mary Toliman and director of Child Welfare Isabel Salatiel.