By Matia Samuel Timatio
A widow and a mother of five, Modi Enosa Mbaraza is advising the people of this country to present their decencies and live as responsible citizens despite the difficulties that evolved the country.
Ms. Mbaraza who works for Young Women Christian Association (YWCA) as the Executive Director shared her responsibilities of being a widow and the head of a family.
In an interview with No. 1 Citizen Daily Newspaper, the mother of five explained she overcame hardships and provides useful tips to the public on how to nurture a child.
“Being a mother is not something easy because it cost you your time, your social life and it cost everything that is associated with the outside world which requires concentration and commitment to raise responsible children,” Mbaraza said.
She stated that, it is mother’s duty to keep her children away from the street and raise them into responsible citizens.
“A mother is somebody who nurtures her children into responsible people not going to roam around on the streets; to become thieves and irresponsible in the country,” she said.
Enosa emphasized the importance of the mother’s conduct especially in the presence of her children because she is their first teacher, from whom they learn everything and the importance of disciplining them well without shaming them.
“A mother is the first person to educate her children at home that means your behaviour, how you conduct yourself, how you raise your children, you find that other mothers beat their children so bad and they don’t sit together with their children to tell them about realities in life as such children grow up ignoring without being told what is wrong or right,” she said.
Enosa criticized mothers who pamper their children and spoil them so that they turn into lazy and irresponsible people in society; and that they should learn how to be independent and creative, saying that is what make one a true mother.
“So, my message to the young girls outside there is that today you are young and attractive and you find that men of all ages are rushing you making you think that you are the most beautiful creature in the world but as time goes by things start fading each and every year and by the time you reach 30, you find out that the level of rushing is reducing by certain percentage annually. So, that is the time you need to strategize and think responsibly and that is when you will need your children,” Modi explained.
She further mentioned that when a woman takes good care of her children, they will be able to support them in return in the future.
She however revealed that most men in Juba are not supportive of their women but instead, expect to receive care and when they do not, they turn violent and butter them.
“They only sit by the road side wasting a lot of time playing dominoes while their women struggle to provide for the men, they married including the whole family.”
“You find that women are there selling the vegetables running up and down doing domestic work to care for the family and on top that, domestic violence increases where if the husband comes back home from playing dominoes and find no food, she ends up being beaten, humiliated in front of her children because of not providing food which is not really a good way raising this society,” she stressed.
Enosa criticized the violent men who beat up their wives, saying they because are not exemplary to their children since the children will learn from them to be violent to their wives in future.
“How do you men feel when beating up a woman in front of her children? How do you expect your children to grow up to be responsible? They will do the same thing done to their mother which does not give due respect to women. Men should come out to support their women and children” Modi urged the men.
In commemorating International Mother’s Day, she said that it’s a collective responsibility to raise up the children in a motherly and fatherly love not blaming the women for the irresponsibility.
Mother’s Day is an occasion which is celebrated in various parts of the world to express respect, honour,and love towards mothers. The day is an event to honour the contribution of mothers, acknowledge the efforts of maternal bonds and the role of mothers in our society.