Nana Oye Lithur, a former Minister for Gender Children and Social Protection and a distinguished Human Rights Activist on Sunday organized a cookout with the staff and children of Christ Faith Foster Home, Frafraha in the Adentan Constituency.
The event was to commemorate Mother’s Day celebrations in 2019. The delegation, led by Nana Oye, spent some time interacting with the children and staff after presenting them with Toys, drinks, and some board games.
Speaking on the Cookout, Nana Oye mentioned that one of the struggles with modern motherhood was the responsibility of juggling about a hundred different roles within the shortest timeframe. She spoke about the working mother who wants to grow her career or business, provide for her family, whilst supporting her husband emotionally and financially.
Nana Oye also mentioned the strain social networks places on family lives and how mothers would sometimes sacrifice their weekends to honour a wedding, funeral or fulfil some social obligation. She cautioned mothers on how constant neglect of quality time with their children could invariably affect their mood, output and overall wellbeing.
“Children who spend quality time with their parents are less likely to have behaviour issues within the family and school setting. Happy, well-loved, and well-adjusted kids are statistically less likely to engage in risky behaviour, it’s not enough to only be there for important occasions or crisis,” she said.
Speaking on the motivation behind the cookout, the Mother of the Year 2018 winner, reiterated some childhood memories on how cooking sessions with her grandmother helped shaped her life into becoming the well-adjusted adult that she is today.
She stated that those moment spent in the kitchen gave her key survival skills and also an opportunity to practicalize her studies at a very young age.
She stated that cooking provided the opportunity to teach many lessons, math concepts like counting, measurement, and fractions naturally unfold when navigating a recipe with children. Explaining how food changes with temperature or how certain foods can help our body be healthy to provide great lessons in science.
She said that whiles cooking with your child, practice new vocabulary as you describe how food looks, feels, and tastes. Following a recipe from start to finish helps build the skills for planning and completing projects.”
“Being a mother myself to 4 children within my household and millions more across the country, there are times I almost get overwhelmed with my daily tasks and feel I barely had time for myself. The one way I spent quality time with my children was sharing the kitchen with them and teaching them how to cook a variety of meals,” she stated.
Together with ‘Chef’ Gladys, Prince and Jessica of the Faith Foster Home, the cooking team made some pancakes and shared with all the other children in what Nana Oye described as one of the most memorable mother’s day of her life.
In her closing remarks, Nana Oye mentioned the importance of child safety and security due to a number of recent happenings. The kidnapping of mostly girls in Takoradi who are especially vulnerable has taken centre stage in the country and she assured all Ghanaian mothers’ that she is actively championing the fight against that unfortunate occurrence. She mentioned that her thoughts and prayers are with all the mothers who have had to stay up all night wondering when they will see their children again.
She urged all citizens to engage the authorities and contribute meaningfully in ending the crisis. She also called on the police to, as a matter of urgency, tighten its security protocols and ensure that the good citizens of Ghana are safe and can continue living their lives without fear or panic.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.ghh/103.5FM
