20 toddlers abandoned in Tororo since November

Local leaders in Tororo District have raised concern over increasing cases of child abandonment.

According to the leaders, parents are increasingly abandoning children at places of worship, police stations and health centres, among others.

Police statistics indicate that 20 children have been abandoned in different locations in the last four months.

The officer-in-charge of the Child and Family Protection Unit at Tororo Central Police, Ms Christine Awori, said the trend is alarming and calls for urgent attention.
She said most of the abandoned children are under two years, which she said makes it difficult for the police to trace their parents.

“Instead, we resort to partnering with civil society organisations, especially Child’s i Foundation that is currently helping us in linking them to well-wishers, who can help in fostering them,” Ms Awori said.
She added that at times, police are forced to use their resources to take care of the recovered babies.

The police officer attributed the rising cases of child desertion in the district to failure by men to own up their responsibilities. “These cases are becoming rampant because the men have failed to take care of their responsibilities. What they know best now is to impregnate women and run away,” she said.

Mr David Adoke, the project manager for Child’s i Foundation, said for the past six months, they have facilitated the integration of about 60 children into different homes.

“We have managed to integrate more than 45 children with their biological parents. Three of them went for independent life and 18 we linked them to alternative care through foster support placement,” he said.

Efforts
Mr Adoke said their organisation has also embarked on training foster parents of the abandoned children to ensure good parenting.
The district probation and social welfare officer, Ms Suzan Alamai, said preliminary investigations indicate that most of the abandoned children belong to single mothers in urban centres.

In April last year, Youth and Children’s Affairs minister Florence Nakiwala Kiyingi asked Parliament to give them Shs3.5 billion to establish a fully-fledged Children’s Court in Apac District to try and dispose of a backlog of cases of irresponsible parenting.

“Parents do not know that the Children’s Act, 2016, has given children a lot of powers. A child has a right to protection, information, education, nutrition, health, maintenance from birth until the age of 18 years,” she said.

NATIONAL OUTLOOK

Ministry of Gender officials in April last year announced that since November 2018, they had recorded more than 3,000 cases involving parents who neglect their children.

They said the high cost of living was forcing single parents to force their partners to share responsibilities such as paying school fees and providing money for upkeep for the children. In cases where peaceful means failed, both partners abandon the children.

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