body-container-line-1
16.05.2008 News

PREACHING TO THE MEN

16.05.2008 LISTEN

Yesterday, Ghana joined other members of the United Nations to mark the International Day of Families, under the theme ‘Fathers and families: Responsibilities and challenges’.

Given the importance of the event and the relevance of the theme, one wishes that the opportunity provided could have been more effectively used to reach the main target group: fathers or men in general.

However, as with many of the UN celebratory days, it seems that the agencies that should publicise the event wait until the very last minute to publicise it.

The result is that in the end little publicity is achieved, little notice is taken of the event by the public and, most disturbing of all, the event misses the attention of most of its target groups.

Apparently, most organisers of such days are content to merely mark the occasion by a speech-making activity, spiced by a cultural troupe performance. The curtain is then brought down on the observance until the following year.

Yet, it is obviously not for the fun of it that the UN goes to the trouble of designating a special ‘day’ annually to highlight certain subjects or themes.

In the case of the ‘International Day of Families’, all over the world the challenges of the present era have clearly taken a toll on family cohesiveness, thus the need to focus special attention on the issue.

This year’s theme, on fathers and families or fathers and responsibilities, has special relevance for this country, one reason being the numerous cases of child abandonment reported in the media.

For, it can safely be concluded that behind almost every case of a woman abandoning her baby there is a link to a father who has shirked his responsibility for the child he has brought into the world.

Poverty is no excuse for either mother or father to abandon a child, of course.

It is noteworthy that a statement issued by the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice in honour of the day, pointed out that these days it is receiving more cases related to fathers not looking after their families.

In a speech to mark the day yesterday, the Minister for Women and Children’s Affairs, Hajia Alima Mahama, among other things listed a truly impressive line-up of existing official initiatives that support family development.

These include: the Early Childhood Care and Development Policy, the Adolescent Reproductive Health Policy, the Revised National Population Policy and the Child Trafficking Act.

But how many people know about them?

Thus, one wishes that the observance of the day could have been preceded by a long educational campaign to educate the public on these related polices and programmes.

And the issue of child abandonment could have been a focus.

Further, given this year’s theme, the messages and the events should have been targeted at men, such as men’s religious or men’s social groupings or even sports clubs.

But, unfortunately, the tendency has been to target such family-related events at women – in effect preaching to the converted.

More creative effort should go into achieving the objectives of the days the UN has set aside to highlight key issues and themes.

Just in....
body-container-line