We want the government to come on board on a bigger scale to support initiatives such as Inspire Pacific's Tagane Mai Program to develop young, responsible and caring men because we are sometimes just addressing the symptoms and not the root causes of the social problems that we are facing.
Those are the stern words of Inspire Pacific Founder, Ben Morrison who is also saying that we need to look at our education system on how we are developing young people to be good parents.
He also says there are training sessions underway all the time but their effectiveness also needs to be assessed.
Morrison says they need mentors for boys, retired teachers to assist, and men in general to develop an interest to mentor young men around them.
He stresses that comfort is the killer of growth, and when you get comfortable in something, it kills the passion and desire to grow and change.
Morrison says we need to get uncomfortable with the status quo so that there is some urgency and there is some intrinsic desire to make a change.
He adds many times we will start asking questions and looking at what is the problem, and we will stop at whatever is within the budget or what is within the office hours.
The Inspire Pacific Founder says more needs to be done, and the only reason their program is off the ground with very little support and funding is because they have an adamant tenacity to say we will not stop.
Morrison says it is quite evident when you look at police cases regarding drugs and the situation on the ground, that it is worse than what it is as we are just looking at what is being reported.
He says the connecting issues with drugs is HIV because of the sharing of needles, and some of the boys have come through with these issues.
Morrison says it has gone to the place where they have been told that when a group of three boys on the streets are picked up by Police and random tests are done, all are HIV positive.
He says the connecting social issues are related to parenting and broken marriages.
Morrison says we have a web of issues growing in our society, we agree that it is alarming but the question is what are we doing about this.
The Inspire Pacific Founder says there needs to be a lot more investment into the home and the family, and as a society, we all need to support parenting.
He also raised the question regarding the increasing old scholar events and whether they need to ask if the organisation is supporting itself at the expense of families in the country.
We are in the process of getting comments from the Minister for Women, Children and Social Protection.
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