The International Family Day, celebrated today, May 15, aims to discuss issues involving this essential core of society and propose support measures for those in vulnerable situations.
It is in the family that the first ethical, moral and cultural values are transmitted, influencing people’s behavior throughout their lives.
Today is a call to awareness and invites us to:
- Promote the importance of the family in society;
- Underline the basic character of the family in the education of children;
- Pass messages of love, respect and union, essential elements for the relationship of all family members;
- Alert society to the rights and responsibilities of families;
- Sensitize citizens to the social, economic and demographic issues that affect the family;
- Sensitize the population about the different types of families that exist.
This date was defined on September 20, 1993, in deliberation of the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) to honor the family, but above all, to point out the problems and radical transformations that this “social cell” has been presenting since the 20th century.
The UN also highlights the role of families in achieving Sustainable Development Goal number 16 – Peace, Justice and Effective Institutions – which aims to promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective institutions, accountable and inclusive at all levels.
The human family
Climate change, serious socioeconomic crises and the multiplication of conflicts have forced millions of families to leave their homes, their places of origin and move to other countries in search of decent living conditions, often putting themselves in situations of risk.
Behind the anonymity of these numbers are people who faced the impossible to reach a safe place. They are not just stories of inequalities, despair and degradation, but also of courage and dreams of a new life, new opportunities, of living in safety, of having a fair job and, often, of family reunion.
The general manager of the Fraternity – International Humanitarian Missions (FIHM), Friar Luciano, warns that “it is very important to understand that these people lost family, material goods, professions, leaving behind many built things, consolidated and leaving for the unknown with a sequence of traumas that can interfere in the search for a new opportunity”.
Friar Luciano also reinforces that “being a refugee is not a choice, it is not having a choice. And in the face of this reality, we need to seek together, in an interdisciplinary way, reciprocally beneficial solutions for these people and also for the host local populations, so that this has a constructive outcome in the medium and long term.”
We must welcome these migrant and refugee families with justice, respect and fraternity, understanding that we are all part of a single family: the human family.
