Children deserve Better
Maltastar (01-07-2009)
The Social Affairs Parliamentary Committee is composed of members from both sides of the parliament but is chaired by a member from the government side.
From the Opposition’s side, the sitting members are Profs Anthony Zammit, Dr Michael Farrugia and myself. This committee is quite an active one, and in fact we held a considerable amount of meetings. The committee’s focus is the family, and we have already published a report on children and poverty.
To compile the report we called on various experts in the field. All members participated actively in the drawing up of this report. There is no doubt that all of us in the committee have our children’s interests at heart.
Children in our country are experiencing poverty. According to the child well being index, our children rank last amongst all other European Union countries. The red light is very strong now and in our report we are urging government to take the necessary steps to tackle the situation. As a committee, we have no executive function or power but we formulated recommendations based on research by experts in the field.
The recommendations we made are not far fetched, but are based on common sense, sensitivity, and on better use of existing structures. We have to take our children out of generational poverty and encourage them to develop their potential to the full and not fall victims of negative generational aptitudes and social patterns. I do not wish this report to end up like any other report occupying shelf space. The report is being promoted, but so far we saw no concrete action.
I strongly urge government to take this report very seriously and implement the recommendations. Our children deserve better than this government is offering them and this report is a golden opportunity for government to take the bull by the horns and act.
Dr Justyne Caruana is a Labour Party MP, and a member of the Social Affairs Committee.
The recommendations we made are not far fetched, but are based on common sense, sensitivity, and on better use of existing structures. We have to take our children out of generational poverty and encourage them to develop their potential to the full and not fall victims of negative generational aptitudes and social patterns. I do not wish this report to end up like any other report occupying shelf space. The report is being promoted, but so far we saw no concrete action.
I strongly urge government to take this report very seriously and implement the recommendations. Our children deserve better than this government is offering them and this report is a golden opportunity for government to take the bull by the horns and act.
Dr Justyne Caruana is a Labour Party MP, and a member of the Social Affairs Committee.
© 2009 - Justyne Caruana
