Children Need Their Fathers, Absent Dads Helping To Fuel Crime, Says Advocate

Fatherless homes are helping to fuel Jamaica's violence crisis, while bitter breakups are driving children away from their dads, according to Executive Director of the Right Shift Foundation Kevin Wallen, who is calling for a national push to get more fathers actively involved in their children's lives.

Speaking at a fatherhood forum held at the Spanish Court Hotel in New Kingston on Sunday, Wallen said fathers play an irreplaceable role in shaping children's lives and warned that their absence is having far-reaching consequences for families and society.

The event, staged under the theme 'A Paradigm Shift,' was organised by the Right Shift Foundation in partnership with the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) as part of an initiative to encourage greater responsibility among men, particularly in inner-city communities.

"We are seeing in Jamaica right now where children are being deprived from their fathers as a result of history or issues from their mothers," Wallen said.

Drawing from his own experiences, Wallen said relationship conflicts often leave children caught in the middle.

"The intimate relationship between mothers and fathers is no longer sweet, and it is bitter. And with that bitterness, it spills over too. The mother poisoning, mothers poisoning their children away from their fathers. Taking the children away psychologically and mentally from their fathers," he said.

According to Wallen, the absence of fathers has become one of the country's most pressing social issues.

"Lacking of our fathers right now, in the home, in society right now, is one of the main contributing factors to the violent state of our country," he said.

He stressed that being a father is about much more than paying bills or buying gifts.

"It's not just having money. Money is important, but effective presence," Wallen said.

"I've seen cases where fathers shower children with luxury, material stuff, and remove themselves using this money, using these luxury, these material things, to substitute for parents, them being present, and them not being present, and using money, does not solve the situation. Because there's still a void there. It's just basically putting a bandage and a wound."

Wallen also called for greater public education to help fathers better understand their responsibilities and the legal avenues available to them when relationships break down.

"Public education needs to be... More in public education, because a lot of the men don't know. So they don't know how to go about dealing with different approaches," he said.

He said more outreach programmes, community meetings and workshops are needed to equip fathers with information about parenting and accessing support services.

"Go to the men in these communities. Engage them in walk-throughs and community meetings and symposiums and all these things. Go to the men in these communities with the information. With the brochure. With the flyers. Educate these men," Wallen urged.

The motivational speaker maintained that fathers should never believe they can substitute their presence with financial support alone.

Instead, he encouraged men to become active participants in every aspect of their children's lives, saying strong fathers help build stronger families and, ultimately, safer communities.