MODEL COUPLES ASSOCIATION HOLD THEIR FIRST MONTHLY MEETING

Under the project “community driven mechanisms to prevent violence against children in Kasese district as implemented by RWECO and its member organizations (RIDE-Africa, RIC-NET, KALI and GOOD HOPE) in partnership with Kasese guide radio with funding from the child rights and violence prevention –Fund (CRVP-FUND), the implementing partners work with couples who were identified as model couples through religious and local leaders as good examples in their communities as far good /positive parenting is concerned.

Model couples from the sub counties of Karambi and Kitholhu formed an association that will always bring them together to discuss on issues of good parenting, prevention of violence against children and also introduced saving scheme that will provide credit to its members at a low interest rate  that will help them improve the income levels of their homes.

The host Mr. Sebastian giving his welcoming remarks

 The couples on 29^th July 2017 had their first meeting and a number of issues were discussed which included:

Sharing experiences on Positive/good parenting; Prevention of violence against children and the common cases in their areas;The number of couples reached out by each model couple in their areas; Drafting the constitution of the saving scheme among other issues .

 

The couples during the meeting

The couples were happy as they said the meetings will enable  them build a strong force that will end  violence against children in their homes and communities through sharing about different issues in regard to child upbringing and protection .

Community members sensitized about prevention of Violence Against Children at Kisolholho primary school

This was during a  community sensitization session that was held on 27^th July 2017  at Kisolholho primary school  play ground ,Karambi sub county with the theme  “ Stop violence against children for quality education “.The session  was attended by over 125 community members  who included parents, sub county leaders (sub county chief , CDO ,OC Police ,councilor) ,religious leaders, school management committee members ,community opinion leaders ,youth and children  from Kisolholho parish.

Key activities of the day: Songs, poems and skits from school children and drama groups ,speeches from  parents' leaders , local  political leaders ,sub county chief , CDO , OC police ,child rights activists and RIC-NET staff all focusing on  prevention of Violence Against Children   ,the rights and responsibilities of children and parents and community efforts to support prevention and management of violence against  children . 

Children of Kisolholho primary school presenting a song about violence against children

 All the key speakers emphasized on the parents’ role of providing and protecting their children to prepare them for a bright future which will not only benefit the children but also their parents. 

CDO Karambi giving his speech

We believe that when the community is aware about violence against children and how it can be prevented it reduces on violence cases since some perpetrators realize that the acts they do on their children are  bad and some are able to report these cases .

OC station  Karambi giving her remarks

This is one of the activities of the community driven mechanisms to prevent violence and adolescents in Kasese district project as implemented by the four RWECO member organizations of KALI, RIC-NET, GOOD HOPE and RIDE-Africa in partnership with Kasese guide radio with support from the Child rights and violence prevention –Fund (CRVP).

SILENTLY THE MOUNTAIN IS CRYING.

The mountain of promise, with potentials and very hospitable people has been left naked to be the mountain soaked in blood, mourning, hate, grief, fear, terror, groaning to lamentations of burying the dead but still a mountain of hope. This was a narration of hope from members of Inter-religious council (IRCU) joined the drive for peaceful co-existence in Rwenzori. The mountain is now silently crying in the hands of those supposed to put in right. “We must choose to define the mountain we want now (a happy one or grieving one) Justice Ogolla stressed”.  

participants who attended the interface meeting at virina hotel.

The interface meeting held at Virina garden Kasese attracted politicians across the divide, members from the cultural institutions, members from civil society organizations, members from faith based institutions civil servant, politicians whom lost the elections and members from IRCU. During the discussions, the members focused on amending what went wrong and this proposed action that can bring peaceful co-existence. Hon Sibendire Bigogo stressed that; the community representative must focus on the desire of the community. Peace begins with us and each one of us, we have no option but to remain the residents of the districts where we come from. We must hold dialogue meetings but putting into consideration; what kind of dialogue can be organized when we don’t even understand the key issues? Who are the players, who contribute what in the peace process? Dialogue cannot be centered only on protecting the image of one side and the rest remain suffering again.

Kasese and her people are characterized by Trauma (what should be done to the orphans and widows and those people still in prison), a lot of mistrust among parties, opportunists are imposition themselves in the positions of influence, there are clashes of hatred, we are now in the politics of deceit and threats of arrests to those regarded as royal guards.

We have handled the ceasefire and direct confrontation well at village and community level but there still exist aspects of fear to speak the truth and maintain the truth. Leaders must help the people to define our identity as people of Kasese as per the constitutions of Uganda, identify the key actors in the conflicts who has influence, power and interest yet those interests are not the interests of the majority, thus organize community driven mechanisms which include public sensitization meetings, leaders interface meetings, debates in schools, radio talk show and joint prayers for peace.

TOORO KINGDOM MINISTERS AQUIRE IN ICT SKILLS

“The underlying cause of cause of conflict in the region is the lack of proper flow of information and the inadequacy of reporting on issues as they occur” remarked the second deputy prime minister of Tooro Kingdom Hon Tinka Stephen Amooti during the ICT training. The training was conducted by Rwenzori information centers Network with support Hivos and attracted 4 ministers, 2 ICT assistants attacked to the kingdom, youth chairperson of OBT staff from RWECO and the religious.

group discussion of interventions

The training focused on channels of communication, cause and actor analysis in conflict prevention and management,packaging of the message and information, relationship between OBT and other institutions in the region, media and use of media Platforms, updating and uploading content on the website, Use of the ODK in tracking information and data from the community and use of information to promote peaceful co-existence in the region.

Mr. Mugume Vincent Araali the minister for information, noted that, “...have realized the missing links in communication”… it’s important we focus on this to propel the region.Tooro kingdom can be at the apex of peace in the region if we play our part properly. The trained has built the strength and skills of the ministers, awakened the structure on their roles, empowered them o capture data that will support them in the mediation role among the parties.

New set of computer given to the institution to support information sharing.

The participants resolved that; the causes of the conflicts can be dug from within the institutions and key stakeholder be sensitized on their role. Proper mechanism of engaging the youth should be put in place, Tooro kingdom should improve on their relations with other people and institutions in Tooro and the region. However peace actors should clearly understand the history of the region in which we are operating. Our history has been influenced by politics of patronage.

OUR LEADERS SHOULD GIVE US EXPLANATIONS.

Secondary pupils from the Debate and human Rights Clubs of Bubukwanga SS, Three Angels high school, Good hope SS and Kabango SS conducted school debates at their respective schools. The motions for the debates were “local leaders are primarily responsible for conflicts in the District” and Revolutions are justifiable means to attaining peace”. The debates attracted 283 members (136 females and 147 makes) of the clubs in the school. During the discussions that were organized by the learners themselves, they stressed that leaders are the key actors in the conflict situation in the District. They give wrong information to the people, have failed to understand their role of proper guidance to the community, offer service in segregative manners, have politicized government programs, are more corrupt in nature and are full of anger to revenge especially those who lost in the elections.

Kabango SS students debating

These leaders should offer us the youth an explanation because their acts are immoral and have led to loss of lives of the innocent youth. Take examples of actions that happened in Kanyamwirima, Kirindi, Kabango, Kirimya, where innocent Youth who lost lives and those still in prison were acting on the advice and guidance of the local leaders as it has been reported on several media houses.

Mr. Biira Marion from Kabango mentioned that; though we may blame central government of their action of creating small institutions that are separating people especially the cultural institution and separating people into small districts, it’s the local leaders who take such demands to the President. The central government works alongside the poor planning from our leaders.Mbambu Carol from Good hope SS, mentioned that our leaders are tribalistic in nature and favour certain people. 

Three angels students in debate

Thus this affect quality of services offered and creates disagreement among the people. They are not capable to understand that politics is not permanent job, it depends on how you convince the voters and the agenda a leader is puting forward. So some of them have confused politics with tribal issues and these have created more problems in the District.

The students called upon the leaders to respect the community and peoples will, identify the challenges the people are facing like drug abuse, poverty, improve the quality of education and develop program that can list the youth.

Children cry out to leaders on violence against them

Violence against children in Kasese District is reported to be increasing because of conflicts and human rights violations, economic breakdown in families,moral decadency in society, drug abuse , high population pressure on scarce resources like land, unemployment and high dependency on single breed winners.

 In a need to prevent violence against children and adolescents, Rwenzori consortium for civic competence (RWECO) a consortium of four member organizations: KALI, RIDE AFRICA, RIC-NET, GOOD HOPE in partnership with Kasese  Guide Radio, organized a District Dialogue at Nkaiga Primary School in Maliba Sub county on 13th July 2017  under the project "community driven approaches to prevent violence against children and adolescents in Kasese district .The dialogue aimed at giving children a platform to present their demands to leaders ,community members , policy makers and parents .Some of the demands included: Children’s rights to be respected, supporting their education through provision of scholastic materials , midday meals and other requirements , teachers not to be at the forefront of violating their rights,fight poverty  at the household level and parents to play their role of good parenting .

RIC-NET facilitated pupils of  Kanyatsi Primary School in Kitholhu Sub County located in the 

hills of the  Rwenzori mountain  bordering with Congo to attend the dialogue and also express their opinions about children's rights and preventing violence against them through songs ,poems and talk show  .

Kanyatsi primary school presenting a skit on violence issues

 This also exposed  the pupils  to a new environment,  to meet and interact with children from different schools .

The representative of the guest of honor Mr. Mutanaba Patrick LC3 Kisinga Sub County in his remarks thanked RWECO for organizing the event and putting children as a priority in their programs. He further said that children have summarized all the violence issues against them in their songs, poems, talk shows and skits, arguing that as leaders they are doing their part to see that violence is stopped and and called upon RWECO to engage with parents since they still remain the key violators of children and always organize similar events at the local level to reach  out a wide range of parents.

Representative of the chairperson (LCV) giving his remarks

The dialogue was attended by DEO Kasese ,district zonal leader of schools ,chairperson LC3 Maliba sub county ,head masters of different schools ,pupils from 4 primary schools ,students from one secondary school,chairperson local council ones ,district inspector of schools ,teachers ,parents and community members .

The DEO with some of the headteachers

YESU ATUBALIYE WOMEN GROUP HOLDS REFLECTION ON THEIR PEACE MISSION IN NTOTORO SUB COUNTY.

Our leaders have left the community in the darkness. This was revealed during the reflection meeting of Yesu Atubaliye women group on 11^th July, 2017 at Ntotoro sub county headquarters. The reflection was attended by 30 women members (FPAs) who had been reaching out to other members of the community. Among the issues on the reflection was to sharing and discussing what each of the trained FPAs has so far done, the success and challenges from the actions.

Participants noted that, home visits have been done, they convinced more women to form or join women groups at village level such that they are able to share problems and challenges.FPAs are working with LCIII chairperson on the sensitization trips to the community, they have composed drama and songs that promote peace in the community. However, the issue of land in bundibugyo where some tribe think land belongs to the Omudingiya and OBB still cause some confrontation, women are still being overlooked and seen as only house wives, theft of farm products like cocoa and some beliefs of witch craft still exist.

Members agreed on a work plan of actions that shall be done in the next month and subsequent months. These action points include, conduct sensitization meeting in these village registering more cases, hold village and parish Barazas, encourgage women to start engaging in production work and petition the sub county leadership to sensitize the women on the UWEP and YLF that are meant to improve the lives of women and youth.

KITHOLHU LEADERS VOW TO ENFORCE BYLAW ABOUT CHILDREN MISSING SCHOOL ON MARKET DAYS

This was during a sub county  dialogue meeting at Kitholhu sub county headquarters which brought  leaders on around table to discuss issues of violence against children and adolescents  identified during the implementation of the community driven approaches to prevent violence against children and adolescents in Kasese district. The meeting was attended by the sub county Chief, Chairman LC3, CDO, Parish chiefs, District councilors, Parish councilors, Chairperson LC1s, family and Child protection officer, zonal leader of schools  and Para social workers.

The moderator Ms Margret Kidiima, gave a brief report about the project and presented the issues of violence against children identified during the implementation of the project and these included:

• Mid day meals not provided to school going children
• failure to report defilement cases on time
• Parents not attending school meetings
• Absenteeism of school children during market days
• Sub county not giving support to the schools of their jurisdiction.
• Parents not registering their children at the beginning of year at school

The zonal leader of schools sharing her views

The leaders agreed that  violence against children is rampant in the sub county and the zonal leader of schools and family and child protection officer   reported that parents are the most violators of children’s rights in the community because of negligence and failure to adjust their behaviors when ever sensitized about violence against children.  On this matter therefore the leaders agreed to continuously sensitize the community, work as a team to report cases of abuse against children, enforce the bye-law put in place to prevent children from absenteeism in school during market days through arresting children found in markets on school days and LC1s to monitor homes and see children who don’t attend school during market days and leaders working with parents to see that children are monitored from school and off school.

in conclusion the chairperson LC3 and other leaders present pledged to work with out fear or favor to see that their community is violence free.

One of the leaders during the dialogue