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| participants attentively listening to what should be done to prevent violence against children |
Despite the prevailing laws and conventions on the
rights of the child, children have remained the most vulnerable and marginalized
group in the world and Uganda in particular. Violence against children is bred
by society, adults, family members and peers at school and community level.
Violence can be physical, emotional, economic, sexual; and psychological (SCIU
2005), it also includes child abuse in form of beating, tying, burning,
corporal punishments, and denial of food, school fees, cloths and shelter. Girls
and boys suffer different forms of violence. Girls are faced with sexual violence, denial
of a good health environment to meet their sexual reproductive needs like
sanitary facilities access to health and education, while boys are faced with
physical violence in form of corporal punishments by adults.
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| Mr.Murugahara John giving the project overview |
Following the above background, Rwenzori
Consortium for Civic Competence (RWECO) with support from the East African
Children Fund (EAFC) has come up with a project “Community-led Mechanisms to
Prevent Violence Against Children and Adolescents”. The project aims at curbing
down the vice through a community-led approach through economic empowerment of
women, strengthening capacity of school management committees living within the school environment.
The project will be implemented by the RWECO
member organizations of Rwenzori Information Centres Network (RIC-NET), Karambi
Action Life Improvement (KALI), Democracy Link- Africa (RIDE-AFRICA), Good Hope
Foundation for Rural Development (GHFRD) and Kasese Guide Radio to do all the
media activities. This pilot project is targeting eight sub-counties of
Karambi, Kitholhu, Nyakiyumbu, Kisinga, Karusandara, Maliba, Kitswamba and
Katwe Kabatooro town council and 16 schools selected from each of these
sub-counties in Kasese district. RIC-NET as a partner organization was given
the schools of Kanyatsi, Karambi, Kyabikere and Kamasasa primary schools to
operate in.
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| "Education is every child's right" he cries out loud |
It is upon that background that RICNET held a joint
sensitization meeting on 17th Nov.2015 at Bwera Teachers College about
violence against children for headteachers, PTA, school management committees,
senior women and masters of the schools of Karambi, Kamasasa, Kanyatsi and Kyabikere
primary schools as the area of operation for the project. The area inspector of
schools Mr. Biryande. M. Edson and the C.D.O Kitholhu sub county Mr. Mukokoma
Bwambale Paul also attended the meeting.
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| PTA member gives his views about violence against children |
A brief definition of violence
was given to give the subject matter of the project and to allow the
participants think more about the vice. Among other things discussed were the
forms, causes, and effects violence such as physical, emotional, psychological, child
neglect, spiritual a result of Persistence of cultural beliefs, Poverty, over
dependency on single bread winner which end in Poor academic, Death, Body
deformity, Chronic Depression among others respectively.The inspector of schools Mr.Edson pointed out his desire to improve the education sector of Kasese. He further added saying school should not be a place of torture to the children but a place of joy to the children because it is a learning place whereas the C.D.O Kitholhu sub county strongly condemned violence and stressed that defilement is a health hazard to the children. In his speech, Mr. Mukokoma said to abolish violence against children should be everyone's responsibility.
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| C.D.O explaining how bad violence against children is |
The discussion was so interactive where teachers from different schools
shared their experiences and ideas among which include; special counselor
teachers should be employed specifically to give counseling to children, sex
education should be provided to children to prepare them into responsible
adults, teachers should take note of the violent characters in their pupils and
find the appropriate ways of correcting them, teachers should make school the
best place for the children to be and opening of term parents meeting should be
held in each schools to teach the parents what to do in abide to prevent
violence against children among others. The meeting ended successfully,
teachers and the government officials appreciated and welcomed the project
while willing to work hand in hand with NGOs to kick the vice out of Uganda.
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| Some of the acts being decampaigned by Rweco through the project |
