Kathmandu, Nepal - “That’s a very nice way to frame the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals,” Ram Babu Shah, the head of the UN’s Information Center in Nepal, said about an International Day of Families program in Kathmandu sponsored by UPF. It was an exciting, educational, and interactive program entitled, “Creating a World of Peace, One Family at a Time.”
UPF sees family well-being as a central element to fulfilling each of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs):
MDG #1 – Eradicate Extreme Poverty
In some states in the United States, over 90 percent of children on welfare and social security are from broken or dysfunctional families. To solve the welfare problem, you must solve the family problem. Effectively addressing child poverty requires more than a government handout (often seen as creating dependency and a socialistic mentality). Even when inner cities were literally torn down and rebuilt, the same drugs, sex, gangs, and violence soon returned to the new apartment buildings because fractured family structures were unchanged. Instead, children need an environment and a community that are loving, caring, nurturing, encouraging and educational. That begins by creating good families and then communities of good families.
MDG # 2 – Achieve Universal Primary Education
The family is the first school. Children learn to respect parents in their family and then bring this essential education tool into the classroom and naturally respect their teachers. In SAT tests in the United States, the Asians always do better than Caucasians, African Americans, or Hispanic ethnic groups on these college entrance exams. Why? Sociologists conclude that the Asian families are stronger, and this support provides a better educational culture for children.
MDG # 3 – Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
Gender equality is actually a misnomer. Instead, UPF promotes gender superiority. The natural attitude of a loving husband is that, "My wife is more valuable than I am." And likewise a loving wife thinks, "My husband is more valuable than me." But for those who still want absolute equality among sexes, it cannot be found in a paycheck. Mathematical equality is found in the creation of children: 23 + 23 = 46 chromosomes. The father and mother each contribute the same number of chromosomes in the creation of a child. And it doesn’t stop there: each parent plays a vitally important role in raising good children.
MDG # 4 – Reduce Child Mortality
How many times have we read in the newspapers of babies being discarded in dumpsters or abandoned on the doorsteps of orphanages? Most often these unfortunate children were born to single mothers who never wanted to be pregnant in the first place. When unmarried people get pregnant, they frequently describe the event as “an accident, a problem, or a mistake.” Married couples, on the other hand, yearn for children. Infertility clinics and hospitals prosper because barren parents are so desperate to have offspring and continue their lineage. And when they finally do conceive, they celebrate; that child is loved and already lives in the hearts of the parents even before it leaves the womb.
MDG # 5 – Improve Maternal Health
The easiest way to improve maternal health is to strengthen family relationships. A report by the Institute for American Values, titled "Why Marriage Matters," found that contrary to popular opinion, “married women have a lower risk of domestic violence than cohabiting or dating women. Even after controlling for race, age, and education, people who live together are still three times more likely to report violent arguments than married people.” Marriage not only protects women: “Children who live with their two married parents enjoy better physical health, than children in other family forms. The health advantages of married homes remain even after taking into account socioeconomic status.”
MDG # 6 – Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases
Uganda has shown that the most effective and most cost-effective solution to HIV/AIDS is a two-pronged approach called ABC: “A” is for abstinence, “B” for be faithful and “C” for condoms. But they are not treated equally. A & B are universal family values, so this message is publicly promoted. A & B are also two-thirds of the equation and so should have at least two-thirds of the budget!
Critical to an effective prevention strategy is the inclusion of religions because they have rural networks, public trust, experience in education and health care, and commitment. Since religions already teach that sex before or outside marriage is wrong, they will easily and eagerly support the A & B of an HIV/AIDS prevention program. They are already promoting these values.
Mainstream religions will never advocate or distribute condoms, as it is seen as violation of their religious tenets. "C," therefore, should be handled by health-care profession, promoted “silently,” and targeted to high-risk groups, usually sex workers and drug users who cannot easily change their risky habits.
MDG # 7 – Ensure Environmental Sustainability
Environmental sustainability is more of an attitude than a policy, strategy, or management technique. To ensure sustainability we must develop the attitude of public-mindedness. Stated differently, we must educate people to live for the greater good, to put pubic interests above private concerns. For example, people litter because they don’t care about the environment. When I put myself above the public good it is always destructive whether it is pollution, pornography, or political corruption.
Then where do we learn to put the public well-being above our private necessities? Where do we learn the attitude that will ensure environmental sustainability? This is learned best in the family because it is the first institution where the “I” encounters the “we.” Good parents will live for the sake of their children, easily and willingly sacrificing for their betterment. Then naturally, filial children learn this from experience. In a healthy family children actually love to live for the sake of their parents, as well as brothers and sisters. Regrettably, if this way of thinking is not learned in the family, it is usually not learned anywhere else and children grow up to be selfish adults.
MDG # 8 – Develop Global Partnerships for Development
A few years ago, Industry Week magazine ran an article entitled, “Parenting your Company to Profit” and asked, ‘What if the leadership skills required to run a company are really no different than parenting skills needed at home?’ The subtitle essentially answered that question: “Lessons for Leading a Home Apply at Work Too.”
We learn good human relationship skills in our family. Just as collaborations in a business are of a win-win nature, so too are family relationships. The key to productive partnerships and harmony in the home is the ability to see things from the other person’s perspective. In this way, the family plays an indispensable role in developing good character traits that can help create long-lasting and productive partnerships.
The program began with Shah reading the message on the family by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. This set the tone for the evening.
The program drew over 200 people, including eight members of Parliament from across Nepal’s diverse political landscape, advocates (including a former Supreme Court justice and the current president of the Bar Association of Nepal), high-ranking military officers (two former generals), professors, religious leaders, NGO representatives, students, and international representatives from five nations.
After the event Shah said this is the first time he had ever been invited to such an august gathering outside the UN and asked to read the Secretary-General’s message. He promised to continue developing relationships with UPF.
To read UPF's Declaration on Families, click here.