Success Story: Parents of the Boys Attend Responsible Parenthood Seminars
September 27, 2017 ·
Success Story: Parents of the Boys Attend Responsible Parenthood Seminars
It is very easy for most people including parents and the society at large to lay blame on children for the negative things they do. What they do not see is their own failure to fulfill their duty or responsibility that led to the children being astray. Several years of working with street children and children in conflict with the law has taught the Preda social workers that for every delinquent child, there are irresponsible parents.
That is so true in the lives of the children in the Preda Home for Boys. A large majority of them has broken families- the parents have separated and either one or both of them have new partners and the children from the first family feel dejected. They belong to the poorest of the poor who survive on less than a dollar a day. They live on the streets and scavenge on anything that can be of value- scrap metals, old newspapers and used carton boxes and even left-over food from restaurants. Some of the parents may be on drugs as a user and peddler and domestic and street violence is daily staple. In turn, the children resort to stealing in order to survive or sniff industrial glue to ease the pain of their hunger.
It is for this reason that Preda organized seminars for the parents of the boys last May 18 and 23 in Marikina and Pasay respectively. Thirty-seven parents/guardians attended the seminar in Marikina and 19 parents/guardians attended the seminar in Pasay City.
During the seminar, the parents were informed about the Preda program for their children. But more importantly, they were told how well their children are doing while at Preda. A very large majority of these children do not leave the open home and instead stay on their free will and attend non-formal education (NFE), values formation and therapy sessions, join dance and karate lessons, among others. In short, the children while at Preda are very different from the children that parents say they are- un-ruly and worse, criminal-minded. The parents were then challenged and made to think and realize that they could be the reason behind the so-called delinquency of their children.
After the seminars, the parents were then invited to visit their children at the Preda home at some later scheduled date for further family therapy sessions. Then the children could also visit the parents/guardians in their respective residences.
These activities have led to the reconciliation of several children with their parents already and make for an improved family life.
