Positive Parenting 10th Anniversary on World Children’s Day
Sunway Pyramid
November 21, 2010
Excerpts from Welcome Address by
Datuk Dr Zulkifli Ismail
Chairman, Positive Parenting Management Committee
As we celebrate World or Universal Children’s Day, we are also celebrating the 10th anniversary of the formation of Positive Parenting, a multi-facetted parent education programme that emphasises on family wellness.
Positive Parenting first came out with two series of Educational Press Articles (EPA), comprising of 20 issues in major newspapers. These articles covered a wide range of topics, from nutrition to vaccination and from childhood learning processes to the development of social skills in young children. This was Positive Parenting’s first baby steps from which then came free handy booklets, the organising of seminars, roadshows and finally the magazine and guide, first published in 2004 and still growing strong for the past six years.
We at Positive Parenting have been working with relevant experts to make sure that Malaysian parents are educated and empowered with reliable and practical information suited for the local culture about their children’s overall health and well-being.
Entering its tenth year, Positive Parenting has since grown and successfully evolved in a unique way to reach out to modern day parents with useful information on parenting through various channels. We have published over 100 child health topics in the press, come out with more than 20 issues of parenting guides, and organised more than 30 seminars across Malaysia. I dare say that we have come a long way and we are growing even stronger as we reach the ten-year mark.
Positive Parenting has always been associated with children and their well-being. Celebrating our tenth anniversary on World Children’s Day will further enhance our work as an advocate for children’s health and well-being and empowering parents with reliable knowledge on parenting skills.
World Children’s Day is an annual celebration that is managed by UNICEF worldwide. This special day is celebrated to create awareness of children’s rights in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) – the first and only human rights instrument to focus specifically on the rights and freedoms of persons under the age of 18. In Malaysia, the ratifications of the CRC are enshrined in the Child Act 2001.
In accordance with the CRC, children, like adults, have rights too and they are now guaranteed their rights as human beings and not as properties of their parents. Hence children have the right to grow up healthy, physically and mentally in a safe environment.
Parenthood for new parents is an exciting journey. For every parent, it will indeed be a unique experience, from preconception to pregnancy to childbirth. Every step in this exciting journey is unpredictable and as caring parents-to-be, there will undoubtedly be questions about many aspects of this journey.
Today we will be launching a guide book in which we hope to share our knowledge and combined experience with parents-to-be, and current parents, to better equip themselves to handle the issues that they will face in the exciting journey of parenthood.
Parenthood cannot be laid out as instructions to be followed like a recipe book; thus we hope this guidebook can serve as a guide for young parents-to-be, to further prepare them to face the ups and downs of becoming parents.
You can be sure that Positive Parenting will be there to guide you in every step you take in this exciting journey of parenthood.
We extend our heartfelt thanks again to YABhg Datin Paduka Seri Rosmah Mansor for her presence and time here to officiate Positive Parenting’s 10th Anniversary and launch our guidebook here at Sunway Pyramid.
I would like to thank the Positive Parenting Management Committee for sharing their knowledge in this guidebook and all the Positive Parenting magazines and Guides thus far, and the secretariat for all their work. It is my greatest hope that this guidebook will be of use to parents-to-be as well as existing parents and even grandparents.
A depth of gratitude also goes to Pfizer for sponsoring this memorable event to celebrate Positive Parenting’s 10th Anniversary, and also for their kind donation of vaccines to the charity homes.
We apologise for any shortcomings that are often inevitable in this sort of event.
With that, I thank all of you once again for your presence here today, and I wish you an enjoyable and wonderful day ahead.
Sincerely,
Datuk Dr Zulkifli Ismail
Chairman, Positive Parenting Management Committee