Ensure children’s welfare aren’t lost during lockdown

Nowadays on the news, there is always a story or two of domestic violence. Normally, it is either parents fighting or a caregiver abusing a child. This is absurd because in both cases, the child suffers the most.
According to a 2018 survey by Unicef about violence against children, girls are sometimes forced into early marriage because impoverished families view them as financial assets and reap material rewards by forcing their daughters into early marriage.

Additionally, poverty often leads to child labour, as children have no choice, but to work, for example, as subsistence farmers, to help provide support for their families.

Therefore, the as we marked the Day of the African Child (DAC) under the theme: “Access to a Child-Friendly Justice System in Africa,” there is need to strengthen the primary structures and institutions charged with child protection such as the Children and Family Welfare Department of Police and local council departments in charge of child welfare, to ensure that all children are safe.

With the children currently at home because of the lockdown, averting all threats and responding to alerts of exploitation, violence and all forms of child abuse is key.

Key to achieving safety and protection for children is to ensure that there is a child-friendly justice system at all levels. Whether children come into contact with the law as victims, witnesses, offenders or complainants, it is important that they are met with a system that understands and respects both their rights and unique vulnerability.

Share An Opportunity (SAO)Uganda employs an integrated child-centred community-based approach where both girls and boys are safeguarded from exploitation, abuse and violence through creating children’s awareness about their rights and responsibilities, preparing them to be active protagonists in their own wellbeing.

In the different areas where it operates, children are introduced to and prepared to engage with duty bearers and other authorities at different levels where they can report and get help in case of any kind of abuse.

Besides, SAO through its socio-economic empowerment programmes, addresses one of the child abuse risk factors, which is poverty as well as training and building the capacities of duty bearers, parents and school authorities in a bid to create an environment where children are secure and can thrive, growing to their full potentials.

Uganda has sound policies upon which a healthy child protection system can rest. However, the challenge is in the poor implementation of laws and policies meant for child protection.
These weaknesses include lack of clear child protection standards for measuring performance, limited enforcement of monitoring bodies; partial public awareness as a result of language barriers, and limited involvement of children. These weaknesses have led to the continued abuse of children in spite of the existing legal and policy frameworks.

At this moment, as we strive to ensure that every one is safe from the Covid-19 pandemic, let us not forget about the safety of children - safety from the virus and from all forms of abuse and exploitation. The child protection systems across the country must be seen to be functioning at a time such as this.

The community-based systems and networks for child protection, child-friendly spaces and services and the family, which is at the centre, must rise up to do more to ensure child safety in all its aspects.

Deliberate engagement with children, while observing all the guided by government, will ensure that children and their welfare are not lost, and that the voices of children continue to be heard and inform actions amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ms Masaba is the interim national director Share An Opportunity Uganda.