“International Family Day” is being commemorated annually on 15 May in order to acknowledge and appreciate the role of families in society and also to bring into focus the importance of family solidarity wherein members of the family work together to improve family life.

This year also marks the 20 Years anniversary of the “International Year of the Family offering an opportunity to refocus on the role of families in development; take stock of recent trends in family policy development; share good practices in family policy making; review challenges faced by families worldwide and recommend solutions.  Therefore the following will be thematic: “Empowerment and Support to Families”, as well as the themes of the past 3 years:  “Confronting Family Poverty and Social Exclusion” (2011); “Ensuring Work-Family Balance” (2012); “Advancing social integration and intergenerational solidarity within families and the communities” (2013).

To highlight the importance of families the Department of Social Development will engage in family dialogues, building up to an event to be held on 27 May in Hartswater, where the Keynote Address will be delivered by the MEC of Social Development, and feedback will be given on the dialogues held in the surrounding communities (Hartswater, Jan Kempdorp, Pampierstad) on 15 May.  A Plan of Action to improve family preservation will be drafted after this event.  

The family dialogues will focus on issues that affect family functioning e.g teenage pregnancy and alcohol abuse, impact of absent fathers on the effective parenting of children and bridging the gap between the inter-generational gap between youth and elderly, as well as challenges faced by parents of children living with disabilities.  

Targeting the 100 vulnerable families with no income within the War on Poverty wards and those from the current Social Work caseloads, the dialogues will be held in:  Hartswater, Jan Kempdorp, Pampierstad, Douglas, Kakamas, Gasegonyana (Lokaleng), Gamagara (Olifantshoek), Joe Morolong (Kokonye), Joe Morolong, (Madibeng), Calvinia and Garies.

The family is the basic and natural unit of society, which plays a critical role of nurturing and caring for individual family members, from children, to youth, men, women, people living with disabilities and the older generation. Families bear the primary responsibility for the development, education and socialization of children. They provide material and non-material care and support to their members and are a backbone of intergenerational solidarity and social cohesion.

Families all over the world have been undergoing significant changes during the last few decades.  Among these changes are shifts from the extended family to a nuclear family; increased participation of women, including mothers, in the labour force; smaller family sizes; and an increased instance of divorce and remarriage after divorce.  Other changes to families include increases in non-marital births, female- and child-headed households and non-residential fatherhood.  This break-down of family units forms part of a vicious cycle, as it contribute to the moral and social decay in communities.

In South Africa democracy has brought many opportunities for all families, to enjoy political, social and economic prosperity, irrespective of race, gender and class.  However, many families are still experiencing increasing difficulty in fulfilling their role of fully enhancing social development and contributing to society.  This is mainly due to poverty, unemployment, HIV and AIDS, crime and other social ills that result in the further disintegration of family life.  Consequently, dysfunctional families often further contribute to moral and social decay within the Society.

Issued by:

Conrad Fortune
Manager: Communications
Department of Social Development
079 873 0679