Official highlights importance of family

A GOVERNMENT welfare officer says parental responsibility is important in the upbringing of a child.
Director and the acting chief executive of the office of Child and Family Services Simon Yanis said that Papua New Guinea was yet to reach the stage of orphanages.
“We are a communal society where our kinship network is there,” he said.
The office was established last year under the Lukautim Pikinini Act and comes under the Department of Youth, Community Development and Religion.
It is to provide family services, including promoting and protecting the wellbeing of children and families.
“I am appealing to the parents and guardians to make sure that they are responsible. The law gives emphasis on parental responsibility,” he said.
“Also the compliance. If they do not comply with it, they can be prosecuted.”
He said children should be taught good systems of survival and caring for one another.
“The cultural context in which they must grow. The morals, ethics of culture must be taught in the city,” he said
“Children are innocent. We brought them up so we do not expect them to stand there.
“That is the reason why there must be compliance, and there must be prosecution.”
The office in Port Moresby deals with at least 10 cases of family/marriage breakups and custody conflict every day.
“Children are the most affected and it is only here in NCD,” he said.