The Salvation Army opened the Patvērums Childrens Day Centre in March 2002 to provide a safe environment for underprivileged children from the local community in Riga.
Monday, September 12, 2005
The flip side...
Whilst we celebrate with the parents who have recommitted themselves to each other we should also remember the problems that do exist in this country.
The Family is such an important institution and is recognised as being vital for the good of society as a whole. Unfortunately, in Latvia all is not well!
Between 1995 and 2002 the divorce rate ran at a staggering average of 64.3%. Thankfully in 2003 this dropped to 'only' 48.3%. However, this is not the full story! For several families in Patvērums parents are not actually married, and this story is repeated throughout Latvia. No statistics exist for the breakdown of this sort of family but from our experience, lack of commitment is rife, and the seperation rate in this form of family is high.
The encouraging news is marriage appears to be on the increase, with more people getting married in 2004 than at any point since 1995.
Please pray for all those people making commitments to each other through marriage!
posted by Patverums Childrens Day Centre @ 10:14 am
