Loved and Locked

A mother of a 34 year old mentally challenged man stated in a recent newspaper article stated that she locks her son up fearful for his safety.His food and water is given to him through the gate.

The family said that Sheik began to have violent episodes after he was hit on the head 10 years ago at Makoi.The mum who refuses to send his son to st.Giles says that sometimes when the son got so violent he would run after him.

She also went on to say that it is not an easy task looking after her son but is determined to give her best.Inside the wall where he is caged are the marks form Sheiks Punches when he gets angry.

She said that their life revolved around her son because he needed care and love.And the only way to dot hat , she said, was in a cage within reach of their love.

This recent article refers to some of the difficulties that single parent families can face especially with their children.

Family conflict

Family conflict has been one of the big issues in relation to single parent families, they argue and end up in divorce and separation of the extended families.

A newspaper article published on Fiji sun ,Monday March 30,2009,talks about how the eleven year old Narewa lass Varanisese sige vatunitu had lost all love for her family in her village because they had chased her mother away.

Mrs Vatunitu said she sensed that the family of her late husband did not want her after the 100th nite.Things became worse after Mrs Vatunitu set up a makeup shift shed beside their household items for extra cash.

According to the late husbands family they chased her out because she was going to sell their Mataqali house which belonged to them for "11,ooo'.

Many families lack to understand each other or talk things over with their family in order to avoid conflicts which later leads to major disaster in the family.

A mothers Love

Interestingly a mother of two was abandoned by close friends after her close friends and family abandoned her because she chose to love her two sons.

The article which was published by the Fiji times on Friday,27th March talks about how Ms Watis two son Sunil Prakash 24 and Umesh Prakash 19 are mentally handicapped and cannot be left unsupervised.

According to the article Ms Wati takes his two son where ever she goes.The family lives around Sabeto in Nadi.

Most people become single parent because their the breadwinner dies or leaves them because of the so called reason of seeing his children handicapped.They are either shy or do not want to take extra load of work especially without any income.

She also told the paper that doctors have said that nothing can be done about it that her son are fine.They can barely talk but are always found with a permanent smile on their face.

Trainer

A Fiji sun article published on Tuesday,March 24,2009 tells of how Maya Wati a single mother with two son often cries because she keeps thinking of what she would feed her children.
Maya who live in the outskirts of Labasa Town survives from odd jobs at a neighboring community.

Recent surveys have shown that sometimes when single parent can not earn their living they resort to other things like prostitution just to benefit their children.This sometimes also leads to parents sending their children for early labour because of financial constrains. But for some children who cannot sacrifice sometimes end up as street kids.

In terms of street kids it also can generate more crime and poverty around the community.With the help from Civil society organization and other community projects we can be able to decrease this issue.

Recently an article on Fiji Times Online talked about how for the past eight years the Fijians in the ages of 20-29 years being affected by STI,s ,Gonorrhea ,Syphilis, and this is elaborated by Dr Samuela as the effects by having unprotected sex by our youth today .He said these figures were very alarming and of concern for many reasons.

"These are very high rates for Fiji's population. It highlights the underlying concern of unsafe sexual behaviour among young people. This is the same high-risk behaviour for the transmission of HIV.

"The most affected are in the productive times of their lives, could be studying in tertiary institutions, or earning money

"Unfortunately, in today's society, the family is not fulfiling that role for many reasons because of break-ups, divorce, single parent, absentee parents and poor parental examples.

"In Fiji we pride ourselves in that every family has a religious affiliation.

"However, the question we need to ask is whether religion is playing its role in helping parents to fulfill their responsibilities?

"I see religion playing a more important and influential role here than any government department."

Dr Samuela said the ministry had a limited role in terms of addressing the problem of STIs.

He said it involved stakeholders but the primary responsibility was with parents, adolescents and young people.

"As has been emphasised many times, sex is serious business.

Dr Samuela said contributing factors range from peer pressure, substance abuse, distorted views of sex, the influence of the media and entertainment industry through television and movies and the internet.

In the recent development incurring in our every day life..where new things are being experimented by our children........Parents whether single mothers or father must continue to take out most of their time in looking after their children and telling them the consequences faced by people who have unprotected sex....

Links:http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=102701