A non-governmental organisation, Mercy Corps, has charged parents to be proactive in the training their children in a Godly ways in order to have a society devoid of violent extremism.
The NGO’s programme officer and women peace-building coordinator, Mariagoretti Aya, gave the charge in Lokoja on Thursday at the end of three-day training organised by the organisation under its Community Initiative for Promotion of Peace (CIPP) programme in partnership with the Ministry of Women Affairs, the Special Adviser to the Governor on SDGs and supported by USAID.
Aya said the workshop titled ‘Parenting for Peace Techniques’ was designed to equip parents and youth influencers with skills to aid prompt identification of violent extremism in their communities, stressing that parents had significant roles to play to achieve the feat for the society.
“The programme, Parenting for Peace, is a techniques we used in teaching parents to understand how to identified the early stages of radicalisation. Some parents stay at home with their children and they don’t take note the negative changing the children are passing through.
“So, this programme is to educate parents build their capacity so that they can stand and tackle the changing in behaviour of their children. We have trained parents under the programme in Kaduna, Kano, Katsina and now in Kogi state. The training gave the participants incite on what to do to either prevent the occurrence of violent extremism or to avert it completely,” she said.
A facilitator, Imam Danjumma Khalid, in his remarks, urged the government and non- governmental organisation to always equip the capacity of influencers in the communities such as the youth and the elderly, women leaders, parents and teachers to build their resilience against violent extremism.
Imam Khalid, who is also the Chief Imam of Federal University Lokoja, cautioned those fond of manipulating people to satisfy their selfish interest to desist, saying “whatever people do in this world one day he or she will account for their deeds.”
Violent extremism: Mercy Corps urges parents to train kids in Godly ways
