Mothers' Union urged to play integral role with youths
Kaieteur News
February 7, 2007
While the Guyanese society has made a bold step to embrace the ILO's convention on the rights of the child, there is still much to be done to clearly identify responsibilities associated with those rights.
This notion was voiced by Ms. Joyce Sinclair, Guest Speaker at the Mothers' Union (MU) Annual General Meeting (AGM), which was held at Hotel Tower on Monday.
Sinclair in her address to hundreds of MU members said that she believes that the entity could play a more integral role in issues affecting the youths.
According to Sinclair, children must be taught that each right they are afforded gives limited freedom to be exercised, once it does not infringe on other people's rights.
She further noted that it is often believed that the rights of the child convention, is only intended to protect children from violence against adults. However, she added that there is increasing evidence of children perpetrating violence against each other in various forms, especially in the school environment.
This violent situation which has become prevalent in locally has spiralled into a matter of national concern, according to Sinclair.
In this regard she posits that the members of the MU should collectively work out strategies to help rectify this societal problem.
And through the adoption of a school, this initiative could be put into practice, where proper values and skills are taught to students by members of the MU, Sinclair speculated.
As such she noted that periodic self-assessment must be undertaken by members and efforts must also be made to analyse the impact or lack thereof that the religious entity has had on society.
This therefore will require the continued educating and personal development of members to be able to adequately contribute to whatever strategies the MU will endeavour to embark on to help enhance society.
The MU which is a non-profit, international organisation has a presence in more than 75 countries worldwide with its main focus on strengthening families.
According to President of the local diocese, Sister Sheran Harper, several programmes were successfully implemented and conducted over the course of the past year which covered areas such as education, HIV/AIDS, parent/child counselling and community leadership, among others.
These efforts and more will be undertaken this year according to Sister Harper ,which ultimately will have a positive impact.
The two-day AGM which came to an end yesterday was also graced with the presence of members of other dioceses, including the Saskatoon diocese of Canada .