First Lady roots for mentorship of young mothers
The First Lady Janet Museveni has appealed to the Mothers’ Union movement to take on the mantle of mentoring young mothers.
Ms Museveni made the call on Saturday in a message delivered by the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) executive director, Ms Allen Kagina, to hundreds of Mothers’ Union members from 12 dioceses of western region.
The three-day retreat was held at Ankole Diocese headquarters in Mbarara Town.
“Today, people prefer to do things alone, don’t be confined to that culture. Come up with programmes intended to connect young women for woman mentoring so as to come up with strong and upright families,” Ms Museveni said.
She further said young mothers should be mentored to being submissive and God fearing in order to have stable families.
Mothers’ Union is a Christian movement that strengthens and preserves marriage and Christian family life.
Ms Museveni, who donated Shs10 million to support Mother’s Union activities, hailed the union for their efforts in ensuring unity and stability in families.
Dr Alice Mwesigwa, the Anglican provincial vice president of Mothers Union, said as modernity takes toll in dictating the dynamics of running families, communities need to be sensitised on family unity.
“We seem to have relaxed, and we need to come back to the drawing board and see how we can ensure family stability and cohesion. Family breakups, domestic violence and problematic children are on the rise, which shows something is not being done,” Dr Mwesigwa said.
Mothers’ Union members also called on government to lay strong regulations against sports betting and alcoholism, noting that these have contributed to family instabilities.
“Men have abandoned their families and are no longer productive in communities because of alcoholism, children have not been spared too,” Ms Lillian Ahimbisibwe, the Mothers Union president of western region, said.
They also appealed to government to support their efforts in fighting poverty through partnerships like Operation Wealth Creation since they already have existing and organised groups.
The retreat that attracted more than 700 women was organised under a theme drawn from the book of Jeremiah 2:21, “I had planted you like a choice vine of sound and reliable stock. How then did you turn against me into a corrupt, wild vine.”
