Young men in Dominica want their fathers to be more involved in their lives, a program by the Dominica Planned Parenthood Association has revealed.
Annie St Luce, of the association, said the program was piloted following a partnership for peace and violence prevention exercise done in collaboration with the Caribbean Men Action Network (CARIMAN).
“After conducting a program with CARIMAN, the Partnership for Peace and Violence Prevention program where we focused specifically on the males, we piloted a model of this program within secondary schools and what was revealed at the end was that the young men felt that they needed more of their father’s involvement in their lives,” she stated.
St. Luce said after the program the male students pledged to be different from their fathers and vowed to be better men in the future.
“These young men said that they would strive to be the man that their father wasn’t. These young men felt that they needed to be different,” she stated.
According to her the Planned Parenthood Association is currently undertaking programs designed for men and fathers only in collaboration with some of the schools on island.
“We are working with fathers and having some really interactive sessions with the fathers and we are aiming for behavior change because we have noticed that although we may try to do as much as we can within communities and organizations, the most important thing is enacting behavior change…. meaning that you get them to be responsible for their behavior and understand that violence is owned by the perpetrator,” St. Luce said.
She stated that parenting sessions for inmates at the State Prison are also being conducted by the association.
It is very comforting for the the Association to tackle such a serious problem. For your purpose this “lack of interest ” by the fathers towards young men seem to be an international problem. I have been a classroom teacher in New York(The Bronx) and Florida) and have seen so few fathers visit the schools to see how their kids( especially the boys) are doing. The boys yearn to see their dad come around. However tired as they are from a hard days work, mothers always make the effort and try to participate in the educational life of their kids.
Moving back to Dominica (thats where I grew up). I strongly believe many fathers do want to be closer to their kids, but there seem to be some barriers that are keep them away. Going back in time, I remember we always saw the mother as the “star ” in the family. Now don’t get me wrong moms are “super stars” and deserve all the praise for their effort. Nonetheless I think moms should go a little further and talk to the father and make him see that he is important in the everyday life of his kids boy and girl alike. Mothers should show the boys at an early age that dad is a good and loving person. that he care about him. In so doing I believe the dads will come around.
The young men should also play their part by showing their dads that they care not just for mom but also for him. Just show the guy that you love him especially if he is around the house.
We all must understand that fathers are human too,and that we all want to be wanted (fathers are no exception).
Wish I could participate in one of your sessions. I wish your Association well.
They needs to be a survey done why these men is not living up to there natural responsibility, because every action have a reaction. I was not born in Dominica but my father is from there.
I’ve made the same pledge to myself like those students about 20 years ago. My father was BLATANTLY ABSENT. I am a father of two children a 15yr old and a 11yr old and I vowed never to neglect them in any way. Parenting is an important and rewarding job. My advise to any Father is, be a MAN.
Its very important for young men to have positive male role models in their lives. No matter how good of a mother you have she cant teach you how to be a man.
Fathers really need to take an active role in raising their kids. Especially these days when money is tight society is more superficial and temptation to do wrong for money is high.
If these young men can see people in their lives making it by staying on the right path they will be less likely to go astray. Fathers we need to step up.