Every Child’s birthright: A fulfilling Childhood

By Fr Wiseman Nkomo

Holy Childhood Celebration at St Peregrine’s Primary School.

Of primary importance in a FULFULLING LIFE in general is having a living relationship with one’s creator. At the initial stages of life a person has to dedicate his or her life to God, that is, to live only for Him. In the final stages of life to place one’s life in God’s hands, with all its successes and failures, its times of joy and of sorrow.

Every year the Church invites us to remember that the mission to proclaim the good news of salvation is for everyone. This year St Peregrines Primary School celebrated the Holy childhood, a feast which encourages children to be aware of other children’s needs under the theme “Children helping children.” This took place on the 9th of February 2018. The youngsters were encouraged to reflect on the following:

Parents, other members of the family and later Educational, Religious and other Institutions have a duty to provide for integral growth of every child. That is, complete care; nutrition, holistic health care, clothing, shelter, security, entertainment, spiritual and social formation, whereby the child grows imbibing positive human values.

During the celebration we recognized the Government and its Agencies and other non-Governmental Institutions’ efforts to ensure that every child’s needs are fulfilled when circumstances leave her/him without parents, realizing that it is not the child’s fault to be left without parents.

Children who are blessed with everything they need were sensitized to be concerned about deprived children and to make sacrifices to help them in every way they can. This is what the Holy Childhood celebration seeks to achieve.

We also had the school’s health program who spoke at length about the reality of bulling in school outlining its effects in the development of the child. They also made the children aware that they have all the power to assist each other to do away with this practice in school.

The Royal Swaziland Police also had a presentation on crime and crime prevention and road safety. Children were encouraged to play a practical role in the fight against crime in our country and also take all the road safety rules into consideration in order to decrease the number of accidents on our roads.