Yesterday, May 15, was
celebrated among United Nations – member countries as International Day for the Families. It is an annual event to celebrate the importance of families to people, societies and cultures around the world.
Although without a holiday, the occasion provided a platform to promote the importance of a healthy and well-balanced family.
To make this day worthwhile, a wide range of events were organized at local, national and international levels. These included workshops, seminars and policy meetings for public officials, exhibitions as well as organized discussions to raise awareness of this years theme. “Families Matter for the Achievement of Development Goals”.
In a message to mark this year’s International Day of Families, The UN Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki Moon, urged member-countries to always strive to promote unity among families in their communities, stating that it was imperative for governments of member-countries to strengthen “these small but critical units.”
Commenting on this year’s theme “Families Matter for the Achievement of Development Goals,” the UN scribe  recognised the meaningful contributions that families make to advance the mission of the United Nations
Mr. Ban Ki Moon extolled the role of the families in raising productive citizen as well as in alleviating poverty among members as he said. “We believe that by providing economic and emotional sustenance to their members, families can raise productive, caring citizens committed to the common good.
“Strong, well-functioning families can help reduce poverty, improve the wellbeing of mothers, promote gender equality and uphold human rights.
Ban enjoined governments to include family needs in their development policies and ensure equal treatment of all families.
Dr Chris Ogbechie of the Lagos Business School, who spoke on “Contribution of the Family to the Society: A call for Family-Oriented Policies”, described the family as an agent for social and economic advancement.
Ogbechie said that no nation could develop without a strong family base, adding that any nation that wants development must have good families.
The senior research fellow said that it was, therefore, imperative for the Federal, State and Local Governments in Nigeria to come up with policies that would support families across the country, stating that if families fail to perform their responsibilities, it will impose a lot of demand on governments.
Ogbechie expressed optimism that such policies when implemented, would lead to higher quality of family life.
He  advised families to always guard against issues that could lead them to having broken homes, same sex partnerships and cohabitation.
Every child deserves love and security, every child deserves a family where he or she belongs. So as to feel loved and secure. The value of an intact family is infinite and the emotional security it conveys is the most ordinary experience a child, or an adult, can have, especially today and always.
A family picnic, doing crafts together, cuddling up to parents on the sofa and many other day to day family moments mean a lot more than spending time on anything else to this end Dr. Ogbechie urged parents to spend more time with their children and never to be too busy to forget making lives which make  that children flourish and form strong relationships that help them to cope even with  difficult living conditions.
The high demand to meet up the daunting economic challenges on families has indeed forced many homes to forget the basics in family life, so serious that infants are detached from their mothers too early than supposed, to the mercy of nannies and care providers a situation that naturally affects bonding in homes.
By using the platform provided by the United Nations International Day of the Families, to look into the various established family challenges, with a view to providing a variety of support including vocational training for women and employment assistance by governmental and non-government organizations, including individual philanthropists, families will obviously improve their income prospects which will strengthen homes and help reassure children of family cares and responsibilities.
The Family Day Celebration is indeed an opportunity to focus on the family, its challenging times and how situations can be made better it provides realistic options on how to reverse worrying predictions for the years ahead. By placing the concept of a strong family environment at the core of every decision made, we are just at the threshold of realistic solutions to help ensure avertion of unnecessary hardship.
Families must be helped to support their children reach their potentials otherwise, they will be failing in their responsibilities. There will be no better platform than such provided by the International Day of the Families.

Moments like this make families tick.

Sylvia ThankGod-Amadi