COMMUNITIES IN KASESE RAISE TO SAY NO TO VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN

Prevention of violence against children is a new world phenomenon that has come to the development agenda. Prevention of violence against children was first fused within child protection work and little did development work realise that a lot was being missed when prevention of VAC was done along side child protection. Rwenzori Consortium for Civic Competence together with Children's Rights Violence Prevention Fund ( CRVP-Fund) in November 2015 piloted a project on VAC prevention in Kasese District. The project has since scaled up and identified key stakeholders in prevention of VAC. As noted from our experiences, community driven approaches to prevent VAC is has proved effective since communities are well known for their resilience and child up bringing in times of loss of parents or guardians. In this community driven approaches, we have identified the parents as key stakeholders, thus RWECO has trained a team of 16 (8f,8m) community facilitators who will facilitate Parenting for Respectability sessions in 8 sub counties of Kasese, we have also trained 32 ( 16f,16m)primary school teachers in safe school environment promotion using journeys, a hand book developed by RTI for the ministry of Education.

In addition, religious leaders are key stakeholders since they own most of the schools that we call government aided, thus 120 religious leaders were sensitized in prevention of VAC. A case by case approach was adopted given the different religious beliefs and norms about children.

To crown it all, we realised, culture plays a critical role in child rearing practices right from conception to adult hood. RWECO identified Nyabaghole Foundation for Development which runs a unique program for the young children in Kasese popularly known as " Embaale Ya'Nyabaghole" Youth camp where the youth are trained in skills, taught Bakonzo culture, norms and practices. The Embaale Ya'Nyabaghole was initiated and mentored by the Obusinga Queen who in January 2016 launched the program of making reusable sanitary pads with the young girls. RWECO together with Nyabahgole Foundation, has sensitized a team of 16 clan leaders and 35 native chiefs of Obusinga bwa Rwenzururu using the Ministry of Gender Labour and Development Final report recommendations ( Ref. GOU: Cultural norms, values and practices that impact on Hiv & Aids, maternal health and Gender based violence. Final Report, Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, November 2013). The main facilitator was Hon. Loice Biira Bwambale, former Kasese District Woman Member of Parliament ( 1989-2005)

Hon. Loice Biira Bwambale, facilitating at the sensitisation meeting with OBR clan leaders and native chiefs at Virina Garden Hotel, Kasese Municipality, 17th July, 2018

 

Participants at the sensitization meeting of clan leaders and native chiefs

Action points for the clan leaders and native chiefs

The meeting realised that the Bakonzo had a rich culture of child naming according to order of birth which was unique in the world, the participants resolved to make a committee of five people who will study further and write to Ministry of Gender for advice on how to submit their unique culture to UNESCO

The participants also resolved to sensitize the communities against the culture of early marriages and teenage pregnancies and instead promote positive culture that keeps children in school with focus on the girl child

To make a follow up meeting with the Resident District Commissioner on how to seek for government support to sensitize the communities on Bakonzo positive cultural practices  aimed at preventing violence against children

Compiled by

Evelyne Kenyana
Felestus Masika
Edited by Jimmy B. Odyek