Fathers urged to actively engage in nurturing children

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Education Minister Janet Museveni Kataaha has challenged fathers to be actively involved in nurturing their children and not to abandon the responsibility to mothers.

Mrs Museveni argued that beyond providing sustenance for the families, fathers should be protectors and role models to their children. She adds that the father’s input in child development is instrumental in shaping the children’s future, boosting their esteem and enhancing their performance.

She was speaking during Father’s’ Day celebrations at Kololo Independence ground yesterday. Today’s celebrations were conducted under the theme “Abstinence, values and character”. The National celebrations are spearheaded by the Ministry of Ethics and Integrity.

Rev Canon Aaron Mwesigye, the Director of Ethics and Religious Affairs under the office of the President says that the day is marked in Uganda to highlight challenges families face and the role of fathers in averting those challenges.

He says a number of fathers have neglected families and challenged them to take up their roles in the family, be good fathers and husbands and raise some great families in the end. Rev Mwesigye emphasizes that a family is a vital institution in the country whose stability could inform the stability of other institutions.

At the event, the first lady also launched a five-year multi-sectoral Nationwide Initiative meant to strengthen the family institution, rebuild values, ethics and moral infrastructure of the nation. The initiative shall be implemented under the Ministry of Ethics and Integrity together with the Family Life Network, a non-government Organisation established to bring restoration to family values and morals.

Steven Langa, the Executive Director of Family Life Network says that the initiative is keen at assessing and promoting the role of a father in a family. He says that the initiative will be used to review the available laws to establish whether they protect the family institution rather than break it, and the law in terms of punishment to fathers who shun their responsibilities.

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