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Uganda: Leading the Way for Child Protection
Twelve-year-old Prince Ssemakula is already changing the way children’s rights are protected in his community. As chairperson of his school’s child rights club, he has learned that it is important to report situations of children being mistreated.
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| Prince Ssemakula standing in front of a mural painted in Kyenjojo Primary School, where a new Bantwana-supported Child Rights Club is empowering students to know about and stand up for their rights. |
“If my friends or neighbors are beaten or if they [are made to] sleep outside, I am not afraid to confront their parents,” said Prince. He points out that he can also tell his mother or another adult.
In Western Uganda, children are vulnerable to abuse by parents and caregivers because of a lethal combination of poverty, the affects of armed conflict with neighboring Congo on community structure, and stress put on families by the high number of deaths due to AIDS.
Since his father died, Prince has been living with his mother and grandmother along with two older brothers, Brian and James, both of whom had to leave school because the family could not afford to pay the fees.
Prince is one of hundreds children, orphaned or otherwise vulnerable, who are supported by the Bantwana Initiative in Western Uganda. Bantwana provides its much-needed support through ten local, community-based organizations (CBOs). These organizations were already working directly within communities to provide support to orphans and other vulnerable children—they simply needed resources and technical help from Bantwana to strengthen, expand, or scale-up their work. In Western Uganda, Bantwana’s support reaches 3,500 orphans and other vulnerable children through livelihood development, psychosocial support, and child protection activities.
One of the local CBO partners, Rural Welfare Improvement for Development (RWIDE), has been working to empower vulnerable children in Kyenjojo, where Prince lives. Recognizing the need to increase community awareness about child rights and responsibilities (and decrease cases of abuse), RWIDE is partnering with administrators in three area schools to organize child rights clubs.
Stella Marunga, Deputy Headmaster of Kyenjojo Primary School, where Prince attends, is enthusiastic about the Child Rights Club at her school. “Pupils now know their rights as well as their responsibilities,” she says. “They know they have the right to education, but that they cannot just come whenever they want. They are more studious and parents have also reported the same to us.” Teachers are also reinforcing kids good behavior, rather than using corporal punishment to try to manage their classrooms, said Ms. Marunga.
Since it started, the club has been active inside the school and in the community. Students have written poems, songs, and dramas about child rights, which have been performed during weekly school assemblies. Some of the students’ work will be included in a child rights booklet, developed by Bantwana, which will be used to promote children’s rights broadly throughout the region.
Prince and his classmates also have traveled to three villages to perform dance and drama that express the theme of children’s rights. The response from the communities has been overwhelmingly positive and more performances are planned for next year. Deputy Headmaster Marunga also wants the club to perform when parents come to the school at the end of the year. She believes that change is starting to happen, but that more time, public awareness, and action are needed.
Prince is especially proud that he was elected chairperson of the club by his classmates. He says he wants to continue teaching about children’s rights in school and the surrounding villages. But he doesn’t intend on stopping there: Prince eventually wants to continue this work through university, become a teacher, and continue to lead the way for child protection.