RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL LEADERS SHARE EXPERIENCES FROM THE DISCUSSIONS ON PARENTING IN THEIR DIFFERENT CHURCHES AND COMMUNITIES

 

cultual and religious leaders during training.

A three days work shop was carried out at travelers nest in Kibiito town council Bunyangabu District  where the Religious and  cultural leaders within Kibiito town council were invited by RICNET to share their experiences on parenting from the last training that they attended.

The Imam shared that in every Friday sermons and on radio he made sure he talked about taking care of children, showing them love, prevention of drug abuse and alcoholism among children and parents being free with them so that children are free to share their problems with them.  “Some parents are HIV positive and find it hard telling their children who are infected at birth and take their children to schools to remove the children from themselves.”  He added. Mrs Annet Nyakoijo the parish chief who also acts as the leader for women in Kibiito B cell talked to the women to take care of their children. There was a case where the boy children were beating their mother to give them land , she intervened by talking to these boys and they started attending the parenting sessions since they are parents too and they have stopped beating their mother. The men have also changed in their families because of attending parenting sessions and they no longer beating their women. 

It was discussed that Men are also facing violence but have nowhere to report to, they are also given drugs by women hence becoming weak and hence the women become more powerful and authorative in the home. A case in point is where a specific policeman in Kibiito always supports women in case a case is brought up, the men end up being jailed and this police man later takes on these women as his girlfriends. Discussions about who a child is and the responsibilities for mothers and fathers were discussed and experiences were shared where a pastor shared of how his son married a wife, gave birth to only boys and this has been a cause of conflict because they cannot take care of their children and his two grand children have been brought to the grandfather to help them in parenting. It was discussed that parents should ensure that 75% of the time children should spend it at home so that they adopt good behaviors and learn their responsibilities as children unlike when they spend most of their time in town and adopt 50% instead of 25%.

Some of the challenges faced by these leaders while passing on this knowledge in the communities included different people turning up for the services, most people in the villages do not listen to radio, less time is given to the religious leaders during burials and most people turning up in community meetings are old hence the young parents are missing the knowledge

 In conclusion, it was agreed that during the preparatory marriage lessons at church, more emphasis should be on child upbringing as most of the time children are left out in these sessions. Lack of care and provision of needs by fathers in the homes has led to the children being more attached to their mothers than their fathers and some mothers have used this to kill the image of the fathers in homes. The importance of having family meetings in homes was discussed where family meetings lead to direction in the family,  creation of resources from combined effort, understanding of children better by assigning them responsibilities, and children are taught how to work well with people, teaching the children the importance of their goals and dreams.