The government has begun delivering on yet another of its promises to the people of Guyana, as it moves steadily to provide training for single parents in its efforts to empower them so that they would be able to improve their lives and by extension that of their children. Single parents result from various circumstances including divorce, death and conviction of one parent for crimes etc. While it is ideal for any society not to have single parents, the reality is that this is inevitable and therefore measures have to be implemented to deal with this issue as it involves the future of children.
The single parent problem has been around since the modern era but in today’s world where divorce and broken homes are on the increase the issue of single parents is assuming even greater proportions.
United Families International notes: “For the last four decades, societies have been participating in a great social science experiment regarding divorce. The end result has been disposable marriages and shattered lives. Society’s cavalier attitude towards marriage and divorce is not a positive phenomenon and has perpetuated a cycle of failed marriages and a lengthy list of associated social problems detrimental to children and to adults. Divorce is not a solo act, nor is it a victimless phenomenon. There is no debate that divorce has brought enormous physical, emotional, and economic harm to families and to society at large”
“Governments have a great stake in responding to an epidemic divorce rate. Indeed, government can never create enough safety-net programs to compensate for such comprehensive failure in marriage. Divorce prevention should be a high priority around the globe, beginning with a renewed effort to provide positive pre-marriage training, crafting public policy to strengthen existing marriages and to create social and cultural environments supportive of the commitment to marriage. We must reverse the decades of marital decline by not buying into the divorce culture, notions of same-sex marriage, or any form of contemporary sexual liberation. We must regenerate a culture that understands the significance of marriage and in so doing give our children back their lives and their most basic human right — their mother and father bound together in a faithful marriage covenant.”
“The scale of marital breakdowns in the West since 1960 has no historic precedent that I know of, and seems unique. There has been nothing like it for the last 2,000 years and probably longer.” — Lawrence Stone, Princeton University Family Historian
“Divorce can be deceptive — legally it is a single event but psychologically it is a chain, sometimes a never ending chain, of events, relocations and radically shifting relationships strung through time, a process that forever changes the lives of people involved.” –Judith Wallerstein, Second Chances
“Each divorce is the death of a small civilization.” — Pat Conroy
In Guyana the overwhelming majority of single parents are women and a significant proportion are poor and not properly educated or equipped with appropriate skills and this increases their vulnerability, thereby jeopardising the future of their children who often would have to go job hunting from an early age to make ends meet and would therefore more than likely be deprived of a sound education.
The training programmes across the country for single parents embarked upon by the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security is most relevant and commendable and certainly will go a long way in alleviating the suffering of many single parents and help to equip and empower them with the ability to better their lives and that of their children who suffer the most in situations of broken homes or separation of parents for whatever reasons.
At the recent launching of the training programme for single parents in Region 5, Minister of Labour Manzoor Nadir made a very pertinent and practical point when he exhorted that: “We could have given out monetary assistance of $150,000 to each single parent, but what will happen when the money is used up. If we invest to empower you, it will last for a lifetime.” This is tantamount to the old Chinese adage: “Don’t give the man a fish, teach him how to catch a fish.
Indeed, empowerment is the way forward because giving handouts will only create a dependency syndrome which has several negative spin-offs associated with it. At the same time people are given an opportunity to unlock and discover their creative talents which is a key to a successful life.
It would be hoped that as resources allow these training programmes would be intensified as they are critical in helping to reduce vulnerability and poverty.
