“Do not forget the things your eyes have seen, nor let them slip from your heart all the days of your life; rather, tell them to your children and to your children’s children.” Deuteronomy 4:9
Moses reminds the people of Israel never to forget the laws that he is passing on to them from God. They are to remember these laws and to teach them to their children, and their children’s children, so that future generations will be seen as a great nation.
Too often, the next generation has no interest in doing things in the way their parents did. It feels outdated. And there are times when this is true. But vital knowledge and understanding can also be lost when we do not look back to how things have been done in previous generations.
In Sierra Leone, the passing down of knowledge was disrupted by the civil war that lasted from 1991 to 2002.
And so now Sister Anthonia, a nurse, is working to teach new mothers about nutrition. She says, “We teach the mothers how to prepare locally-produced food without losing its nutrients. And then we encourage them to breastfeed from immediately after delivery to when the child is about six months old.”
This work makes a massive difference to the next generation. Amie, whose 4-year-old daughter is thriving after this nutritional advice, now hopes that Lombeh will become a doctor when she grows up.
We each have our part to play in preserving traditions that benefit us all, in finding new solutions to the challenges humanity faces where necessary, and in building a better future that can be shared by all generations to come.