Programme focuses on parenting

The National National

THE Evangelical Lutheran church of Papua New Guinea (ELCPNG) will pilot the Parenting for child development (P4CD) programme in its network because it is important for parents, caregivers and teachers, an official says.
Head bishop Dr Jack Urame told The National on Monday that the programme needed to be undertaken because many parents were not effectively instilling family values.
“Many parents today don’t have time for children, they are busy with work, travels, social entertainment and drinking alcohol and they leave babysitters to take care of their children,” he said.
“The babysitter is not the parent.
“What kind of values will be passed to the children?
“The children are being raised without their parents’ input.”
Urame said P4CD was about helping parents to be effectively involved in their children’s upbringing, especially from the age three years onwards because that was when they started to be perceptive.
Urame said P4CD aimed to build a sustainable capacity for volunteer workers to deliver a programme that was consistent with child protection policies and that could be developed as a universal preventive programme alongside and as part of services provided by the church and Government.
Coordinator for non-formal education under ELCPNG education department, Duaro Embi, said P4CD training had been funded by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) and was developed and coordinated by the Centre for Child Development and Education, under Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin, Australia.
Embi said the church was facilitating workshops for the P4CD training, which involved four hours a week over six weeks.
The workshops were on “What is child development?”

  • Positive attention, play and special time;
  • understanding children’s behaviour;
  • positive and negative parenting styles; and,
  • What makes our family well.