Tuesday October 13, 2009
Go on a second honeymoon at state’s expense
KUALA TERENGGANU: Worried over soaring divorce rate in the state, the Terengganu government is offering to foot the bill for couples in troubled marriages to go for a second honeymoon.
The programme, which is a collaboration between the state government and the Family and Community Development Council, will be implemented before the end of the year.
State Welfare, Community Development and Women Affairs committee chairman Ashaari Idris said a pilot programme with 25 couples had yielded positive results.
He said under the pilot programme, couples on the brink of divorce were sent on a three-day, two-night honeymoon package, and many of them had since patched up their problems.
He said the state was currently in the process of preparing an appropriate module for the programme to ensure its success and effectiveness.
He added that the package would be offered to couples whose marital problems continued to persist despite they having gone through the counselling process.
Thus, he said, an effective module was necessary to identify the right couples who would benefit the most from the programme.
On the high divorce rate in the state, Ashaari said most of them were due to a lack of understanding between husbands and wives, particularly among young couples.
However, he said that the divorce rate among couples married for over two decades or longer were also on the rise.
“We can understand if newlyweds face problems of understanding each other as they are in the early stage of their marriage. A small problem can lead to separation.
“But similar problems are also being faced by many couples who have been married for 20 years or more as have been seen in the number of such couples filing for divorce.
“We hope through this package couples will treasure their marital ties and avoid separation or divorce,” he added.
By R.S.N. MURALI
The Star
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