Africa-Press – Malawi. President Lazarus Chakwera has called on families in the country to bear children they can take care of. He said this Wednesday during commemorations marking this year’s Day of the African Child in Mangochi District.
“We must stop bearing children thinking that our uncles, government or civil society organisations will take care of them for us. We must have children we will be able to take care of. This will help ensure that our homes are fit for our children,” he said.
The President also warned parents against imposing talents and careers on their children, further calling on traditional leaders to ensure that children are protected in villages.
“It is unfortunate that people who are supposed to protect children in our homes are the ones who are victimising them. This is bad, considering that we can achieve Agenda 2040 only if children are free and safe in their homes, villages, schools and country,” he said.
United Nations Children’s Fund Resident Representative Rudolf Schwenk urged the government to allocate more resources to human capital development interventions.
“Human capital development gets low budgetary allocation. We believe that there is room in the budget to improve allocations towards child development. We urge the government to seriously look into this because we strongly believe that human capital is the perfect enabler for development,” Schwenk said.
