The Sunday Mail
Online Reporter
NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS (NGOs) need to come up with programmes that are in sync with local values and local culture, a senior Government official has said.
Chief director for social development and disability affairs in the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Dr Edmos Mtetwa made these remarks while officially opening the Positive Parenting Round Table in Harare recently.
“To our donors and partners, as much as we receive support…we cannot have imported cultures and morals. Before implementing any programme, go to all remote areas that you would want to operate in, learn from the elders there how they used to raise children to grow with good morals. After having been versed with that, then you craft your interventions so that they suit a particular society,” said Dr Mtetwa.
Government, he said, is seized with ways to avoid more cases of child abuse.
“We are saddened by reports of children impregnated prematurely. We cannot continue to let that happen as a society,” he said.
Dr Nyasha Manjengenja of Clowns Without Borders said four types of parenting are tailor-made according to age and local traditions.
“Parenting for lifelong health programmes (PLH) vary – PHL for infants, PHL for toddlers, PHL for Young children, PHL for adolescents; these programmes we have that coincide with the children’s communities,” she said.
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) head of programming Mr Richard Savo said CRS, in partnership with Government, seeks to improve social protection outcomes through evidence-based models as a case management tool.
“We need to scale up positive parenting interventions beyond specific project-supported districts to broaden access. We need to generate sustainable local evidence-based contextualised parenting systems, models and approaches,” he said.
The programme, which aims at crafting a way forward on how to raise responsible children at the same time eradicating violence and abuse against them, was organised by CRS, Parenting for Lifelong Health (PLH), Global Parenting Initiative, Clowns Without Borders and Plan International.
Stakeholders agreed that parents need to avoid harsh treatment of children, protect them from abuse and raise them in a manner that does not deny them a bright future.
