Minister Zialor meets religious groups to discuss spirituality in the family |22 October 2022

The meeting in full swing

The Minister for Youth, Sports and the Family, Marie-Celine Zialor, hosted an interfaith discussion under the theme ‘Inculcating spiritual values in the Seychellois families’.

The aim of the discussion between the minister and all religious denominations in the country was to see how families in the country can be empowered to find their purpose and sense of belonging so that they can make more informed decisions in the interest of their household and the society at large.

The discussion was held at the ministry’s headquarters, Family House, Bel Eau.

Speaking to the press, Minister Zialor explained that the ministry had wanted to bring all the religious denominations in Seychelles together to address the spirituality component of the family programme by the ministry planned for 2023.

She said that taking into account of the various social issues affecting families, the outcome of the discussions is to help improve the quality of life and build stronger families for the benefit of the society.

She said that besides the spirituality aspect, other components for the education and prevention programmes for the family for 2023, on which discussions have also started with related stakeholders, are in health and sports, among other areas.  

Minister Zialor stated that with regard to the negative outcry in relation to social degradation among some families in the society, instead of them at the ministry making the decisions to address the issue, they wanted to involve and to have the inputs of other stakeholders to help create a new generation of families in the country that will be strong to cope with no matter what crisis and challenges they may face.

“We wanted to show an example of what you can achieve when you put your differences aside and you just don’t talk about it, you show and practice tolerance so that we have projects and programmes that are reaching down to the community level and that it can be done,” said Minister Zialor, who noted that we must all be committed to joining forces to help change the mindset if we want to see a different country with transformed families.

Carlos Marianne from the Everlasting Love Ministry said the initiative taken to include all religious denominations for their opinion is a good sign given the extent of social issues in the country to which the government feels that it cannot alone take all decisions.

He noted that the Everlasting Love Ministry on its part is engaged in outreach spiritual empowerment programmes with different groups of people in society, especially the youths.

Branda Labonte, from the Nazarite Christian Church of Seychelles, said that the country needs good programmes and good role models for people, especially the children to follow in their footsteps.

She noted that we should turn to God’s help to be able to address negative influences in the country as with God everything is possible.

There will be other follow-up discussions between Minister Zialor and the religious groups on the subject.

Before the start of the discussion the participants were led into a reflection by Reverend Christine Benoit from the Anglican Church and through a spiritual song by Pastor Gordon Robert from the Pentecostal Church.

Patrick Joubert