World Family Summit

It is my pleasure to express our gratitude to the World Family Organisation ( WFO) to organise the World Family Summit, and that important event will be held in China.

The International Federation for Home Economics (IFHE) had been honoured that the President of the WFO Dr. Deisi Noeli Weber Kusztra was a key speaker at the 2oth IFHE World Congress, held in August 2004 in Kyoto, Japan.

The IFHE Mission expresses strongly the support of families. It aims are to promote awareness that families and households are the prime nurturing environment for every human being and to promote the concept of families and households as operating within a larger social, economic and physical environment, and also press for recognition of the need for education for home and family life in all areas, for both gender, for all age levels and in all societies.

The IFHE recognises that: “The Family is the basic unit of society and it plays a key role in social development. It is a force of social cohesion and integration. In different cultural, political and social systems, various forms of families exist. Further IFHE recognises that equality and equity between women and men and respect for rights of all family members are essential for family well – being and for society at large, and promotes appropriate actions to meet the needs of families and their individual members, particularly in the areas of economic support and provision of social serves. Greater attention should be paid to helping the family in its supporting, educating and nurturing roles, to the causes and consequences of family disintegration, and to the adoption of measures to reconcile work and family life for women and men”.

The IFHE recalls that:
“Helping the family in its supporting, educating and nurturing roles in contributing to social integration should involve (a) Encouraging social and economic policies that are designed to meet the needs of families and their individual members, especially the most disadvantaged members, with particular attention to the care of children; (b)Insuring opportunities for family members to understand and meet their social responsibilities; (c) Promoting mutual respect, tolerance and co-operation within the family and within society; (d) Promoting equal partnership between women and men in the family”.

The IFHE is strongly supporting the Millennium Development Goals and had presented at the IFHE World Congress two Position papers concerning the 10th Anniversary of the IYF and on Eradication of Poverty.

I am sure that the World Family Summit will be very successful and I wish the organisers all the best.

Dr. Gertraud Pichler
IFHE Past President
( President 2000 -2004)

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