JOY FOR CHILDREN-UGANDA

PUBLISHED IN THE NEW VISION, MONDAY, July 2, 2012 CAROLINE SANYU NAKALYANGO JOY FOR CHILDREN UGANDA The New Vision, Thursday, June, 28, 2012 ran a story urging parents to support the Government campaign against child labour. This is evident in Kiryandongo and Masindi districts where children at primary school level are being employed as labourers on the tobacco fields. Child labour is a hindrance to children’s education as they almost become comfortable with the little wages they get from the tobacco field owners hence totally give up on Education. Often time’s children have been exposed to the labour market even as early as 13 years. Young girls are brought from the rural areas to come and work as nannies and house keepers in the city. You find a child of school going age taking care of a toddler at home. It is no news that some of these children are being sexually harassed by their employers who in turn pay them some little money for their silence. This is how some of these chi...

Reference to the article published in New vision, Monday, June25, 2012, the number of girls getting pregnant in primary schools is shooting up and at a very fast rate. Over 50 pupils are being impregnated in Lamwo district per term. This is not something to go dancing and jubilating about. It simply means the future of our children is unpredictable which is so saddening. In 2008, there were 16 million births to mothers aged 15-19 years, representing 11% of all births worldwide. It should be noted that these girls are defiled and remain silent as their offenders threaten to kill them. What is the future of these girls? Who are their offenders? What has been done to these lawbreakers who defile these girls? All these questions remain unanswered. Community should be alert and report incidences of defilement and forced marriages to the law enforcement officers. The girl child should not be abused and the offender goes away as a free man. Parents should support the government in the impleme...

Dear Editor, Witch doctors perform the ritual of child sacrifice for profit. They believe that sacrificing human beings creates lots of wealth! Traditional leaders and healers have often denied child sacrifice to be Ugandan culture. They attribute it to the world’s global village that has seen us copying practices from other cultures. The Universal Declation of Human Rights Article 3 states that every one has a right to life, liberty and security of person. Sacrificing children automatically deprives them of their right to life. Many times we have heard of children gone missing only to discover their mutilated bodies after a few days. At the moment, Godfrey Kato Kajubi is a suspect on trail accused of murdering a 12 year old boy who was a pupil of Kayugi primary school in Masaka District on October 27th 2008. There are many other cases but they are voiceless as it is so difficult for the under privileged to get justice in court. Most times, the rich always get away as free men after sa...

Moses Ntenga of Joy for Children blogs about the unique challenges in addressing child marriage in Uganda and argues that changing negative attitudes towards schooling and education will go a long way to reducing the practice. By Moses Ntenga, Founder and Executive Director, Joy for Children Uganda I’ve been working to defend children’s rights since way back. Growing up in rural Uganda I was always aware that many of my friends were denied the chance to fulfil their potential. Eventually you find that very few friends you started school with complete it with you, and when you look back and think why, you realise it is often because their rights weren’t fulfilled – or protected. Perhaps they had parents who weren’t concerned about their education, or perhaps they had to leave school to help at home, to carry food to market, or to look after younger siblings. Perhaps violence had forced them to flee their town or village or perhaps early marriage forced girls to abandon sc...

Published in Daily Monitor, Kampala, Tuesday, September 18, 2012 Yesterday, the Daily monitor published a story about a jilted husband who shifted his frustration to daughter and cut her deep on the head just because his wife had sexually starved him for three months. It is becoming common these days to read in the press reports about children who are being abused daily. We always find stories about young girls defiled by their biological fathers or relatives; Children starved to death, children sacrificed; children engaging in child labour; children denied a right to education; children burnt to ashes in their family houses, schools,etc. The list of crimes being committed against children is endless. On average, 16 girls are reportedly defiled everyday country wide. Many girls have dropped out of school due to pregnancies arising from defilement. However most of their tormentors are not always followed up due to corruption and negligence by some parents. Recently, a girl wa...