A family is the most important building block of society. A place where individuals are groomed and natured to become valuable societal members and active global citizens. A family is often the place where we all receive much love and feel most loved, a supporting system for our everyday life. Family is also the place where children are provided their basic needs and provided shelter.

Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed to us lots of vulnerabilities within most families due to poverty and a lack of social protection systems to provide families with the basic support needed to care for their members and be a shock absorber during public health emergencies. Today, people are homeless, lack basic essentials to protect themselves against the virus, have no access to public health and sadly often have no food to keep them from starvation.

According to reports, 60% of the world’s population mostly in the global south are informal workers, which translates about 2 billion people who lack workers right, any form of social protection and decent working environments. These are people who have needed to still go to work to feed their families when the whole world stays home to protect themselves from the deadly coronavirus. These are people who do not have the luxury of choosing health because they cannot afford to die from starvation.

As today marks the international day of families, it is the right time to reflect on the building block of all societies-the family-to strengthen their capacity by providing social protection systems that make it possible for the family to stand on its own to perform its duty to provide and protect its members at all times.

It is also a time to show solidarity and care towards the people we care about and the world at large.

IFM-SEI wishes to use this opportunity to call on governments, policymakers, development partners and civil society to take a critical look at the family system and to provide safety nets for them. To work towards bridging the inequality gap and to have a fair and just world where all may live in peace and solidarity.

We also take the opportunity to appreciate and show solidarity to all members of IFM-SEI as one big and happy family supporting each other and staying together at all times. Let’s continue to change the world by spanning the world with friendship. We remain strong together! Happy international families’ day!