Ugandan community church promotes better parenting

On Father’s Day I visited a Ugandan community church in Thornton Heath to support their efforts to promote better parenting. The well-attended event took place at St Jude with St Aidan church and brought together mums, dads, children and teachers to discuss how better parenting can improve young people’s life chances. Over 100 people took part in discussions that covered the importance of helping children with reading, writing and maths, and taking an interest in their homework and how they are getting on at school.

The last Labour government introduced changes that made a real difference to family life such as 3,500 Sure Start centres, guaranteed paternity pay and extra help for mothers. It’s distressing to see how families have been hit so hard by the present Tory-led Government’s cuts in school building, refusal to provide affordable childcare, a big increase in overcrowding and homelessness, and rising unemployment that puts parents out of work.

It was inspiring to see a community use Fathers’ Day to help dads and mums understand how they can make an even bigger difference to their children’s future.