Strong family units make strong societies

WHAT happens in a family unit should be setting the foundation of how children will move and interact in the community.
Everywhere there are talks about the breakdown in law and order, increase in alcohol and drug abuse, increase in domestic violence, police brutality and sorcery-related deaths and a general breakdown in services.
All fingers point to any government of the day, blaming it for diverting its focus away from matters that should be addressed.
Realistically, given the current situation the country is in, the Government can only do what it can do and the rest of it now falls back on families.
Changes may not happen overnight but it can be achieved if all efforts are put into empowering a family unit, especially the father and mother, with the help of the church, empowering them with the skill to impact the message of love, sharing and forgiveness through their actions.
The family is where children can be raised in a safe and stable environment.
Both the father and mother have an important contribution to play as each has a different perspective and can uniquely help children of both genders to learn important skills relating to marriage, education, work, morality, ethics and social interaction and so on.
Families are a place where three or four generations can care for each other from cradle to grave.
These include the sick, the vulnerable, the disabled and the aged.
It gives family members a sense of purpose and meaning that paid jobs cannot do. The family is the basic unit of society. But do we, as a society, really think about what that means?
The bonds between husband and wife, parents and children, are so firmly planted in history and experience that we often take them for granted – until, as happens from time to time, those bonds break down.
Ask any child to draw his or her family and you get the traditional picture of father, mother, brother and sister, with perhaps the family cat and dog thrown in for good measure. The United Nation’s International Day of Families is tomorrow. It provides an opportunity to promote awareness of issues relating to families and to increase knowledge of the social, economic and demographic processes affecting them.
It has inspired a series of awareness-raising events, including national family days.
In many countries, this day is an opportunity to highlight different areas of interest and importance to families.
The theme for 2018 is “Families and inclusive societies”. This recognises that societies can become truly inclusive if families stay cohesive and functional.
This year’s observance will explore the role of families and family policies in advancing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal Number 16 in terms of promoting peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable develop-ment.
The family is the nucleus of society. Although families all over the world have transformed greatly over the past decades in terms of their structure and as a result of global trends and demographic changes, the United Nations still recognises the family as the basic unit of society.
Every time a family breaks up, society is affected in some way.
When long-lost families get together, the society benefits.
In fact, the parents are the epicentre of any household. We would not be alive today if not for our parents.
So when families bond as friends and then as relatives because of inter-marriages, they tend to share everything with each other.
If constructive beliefs and moral values are build and passed to the next generations by each families, a good nation is developed.