The International Day of Families, proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 1993, annually held on May 15, celebrates the importance of families.
Family is a single word with many different meanings. It’s a synonym for love, support, encouragement, help, understanding, security and sense of belonging. Its’ importance many don’t comprehend nowadays, but the truth is that family is the heart and soul of human society.
A family provides basic needs for children when they are born and help them survive in this world. It is the place where kids learn about their environment and acquire abilities to use their senses, speak the first words and take the first step. Value system, their perception, instincts and understanding of the world all come from the family.
Why Are Families So Important?
Family is important because it provides all members with love, support, security, identity and values, regardless of age. Family members teach each other, serve one another and share life’s joys and sorrows. A family works together to overcome struggles and to provide happiness. When a member of the family feels insecure or unsafe, he first turns to his family for help. Kids should know that they have their family to turn to in the hour of need.
This will enhance their self-confidence and make them feel relaxed while facing a stressful situation, such as math test at school, or one-sided love, negative experiences and failure at work later in life. This self-confidence and sense of security will make it easy for them to face the world. Therefore children, who have grown up in families, usually reach their goals and have more chances to live their life to the fullest.
Family helps children to learn about the sense of self and they gain a foundation for the rest of his life. This includes the family values which provide the basis for his own moral code. Spending time with family helps individuals the true meaning of love, appreciation and open communication.
I’m amazingly fortunate to have such a wonderful family. My parents were my first teachers and role models. I’ve absorbed their behavior, habits, manners, lifestyle and always wanted to be just like them: hard working, honest, generous, full of understanding, love and care for others. My mom has taught me to work hard and do my best at school, college, and to be twice as good to people who were kind to me. Furthermore, thanks to her I’ve learned to find a common language with people around me, which is not an easy thing to do. She also taught me to help others in need whenever I can. My dad has his share in shaping my personality too. He helped me become persistent. A quality so much needed today. He told me to accept difficulties as challenges, no matter how demanding they may seem. He also instilled in me his love of sports and nature, that was vital for my proper mental and physical development.
Before making any important decision in life, the first thing that crosses my mind is the question: “How would my family feel about it”. I’ve always been hard-working and wanted to make my parents proud. It was my way to say “thank you for all your love, help and support”. The best reward I’ve ever received was seeing my mom with a smile, happy and satisfied.
Every family has its values and traditions, passing from one generation to another. The role of parents is to foster the best values in their kids and teach them to respect the traditions of their ancestors. These values and traditions create special emotional connection inside the family and make children mentally rich.
Everyone in Novak Djokovic Foundation believe the key to perfect society lies in happy and harmonious family, whose members love, respect and care for each other. That’s why we talk about the family values, that’s the reason we want to emphasize the need to create good and strong emotional bonds between parents and their children, and improve relationships within the family. If we helped a single family to feel closer, we fulfilled our mission.
Last year we decided to support the Family outreach workers project that UNICEF and the Serbian Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Policy have launched together. In this respect Novak Djokovic Foundation have invested $ 750,000 USD in the following three years. The goal is to reduce the risk of unnecessary family separation and subsequent institutionalization of children. In particular, attention is paid to timely risk identification and development of support programs and services for families. (For further information about this project read here.)
Though the number of children under three who have been placed in institutions decreased compared to the period prior to this project, there is still a lot of work to be done to improve the overall situation regarding this issue. Therefore, we need all the help and support we can get to raise awareness about the importance of building a strong family.
We always remember Novak’s example. The unlimited support and love he received from his family proved to be crucial for his development and success. Therefore, we all have to take care for our each family member, show them our love and always help and encourage them.
Family is the greatest treasure in the life of every man and it has been the ultimate foundation of every civilization known to history. Thus it’s important to build happy and healthy family relationships and nurture true family values that will help each family member become better and smarter citizen of the world.
Help us to make a world a better place. For children. For families. We believe in their dreams.
