International Day of the Family-ASFF director calls on families to evaluate their lifestyles |14 May 2005

Mrs Elizabeth was speaking in an interview with Seychelles Nation  this week as she presented the ASFF programme of activities to mark the International Day for the Family to be celebrated on Sunday.

She said that it is the family who suffer when one of the members is infected and ASFF has this year adopted the international theme "HIV/Aids and family wellbeing" as many families are today being affected by HIV/Aids which she described as “this irreversible virus".

Among the activities organised by the ASFF are a special mass and a workshop.

According to Mrs Elizabeth, the mass, organised in collaboration with the Seychelles HIV/Aids Links (Shala), will be in memory of those who have died of Aids and those who are either infected or have been affected by HIV/Aids.

The mass will be held today at 5 p.m. at the Good Shepherd’s Church at Mont Fleuri, followed by a candle light procession on the Church's ground.

Members of the public are being encouraged to come and participate and to bring their candle.

She noted that there will be no activities on Sunday as the Catholic church will be hosting its Pentecostal gathering at Roche Caiman, but she has called upon all those who will be attending to participate as a family.

Another activity is a workshop to be launched on Tuesday May 17 at the National House under the theme "Family and Women empowerment". The workshop will be facilitated by Mrs Veronica De Klerk from Namibia who is the executive director for Women Action for Development, a non-governmental organisation.

The aim of the workshop is to help women, especially those who remain at home or are unemployed, to reflect on ways to develop their personal skills effectively, to be self-reliant and to achieve a better standard of living for the well-being of their family.
The workshop will focus mainly on socio-economic and socio-political aspects of life for future development.

As a closing activity ASFF is organising a family picnic for its members and friends at the end of the month.

Meanwhile, in a message sent to all Seychellois families on the occasion of the International Day for the Family, Mrs Elizabeth has asked the families to reflect seriously on this year’s theme in view of the fact that HIV in Seychelles is on the increase.

“If families do not take it as a pressing challenge, there can be a potential explosion of the disease in the near future and it is family that will suffer the most,” Mrs Elizabeth says in her message.

“These statistics send a strong message to families, one that we should take seriously.
“As families we should today like ever before choose to have stable family relationships, and at home, we should engage in conversation on behaviour change and healthy lifestyles,” she adds.