ACCESS TO SERVICES

Samson’s all-too-familiar story is yet another reminder of Uganda’s struggle with street-connected children. Orphaned at an early age, he was raised by his grandmother and later his uncle, but along the way, his life took a sharp turn that condemned him to the streets.

Following the death of his parents, Samson (not his real name) lived with his grandmother, who also paid his school fees. But when she succumbed to brucellosis, the young boy needed another carer.

His uncle took him in, and he too, ensured he remained in school. But that did not last and he was soon seen as a financial burden. His uncle wanted him out of his home. Left with no other known family to turn to, Samson, who was born with HIV, resorted to living on the streets in a desperate attempt to make ends meet.

He moved all the way from Kooki in central Uganda, where he hails from, to seek solace on the streets of Kampala. But this was no bed of roses. Samson had entered the school of hard knocks, which taught him how to use a sack as a makeshift sleeping bag and how to toil for at least one meal in a day. The unforgiving elements, too, did well to pound him into a box of the harsh reality.

As he told his story, the 16-year-old received the attention his moving delivery in Luganda deserved before a physical and virtual audience of key stakeholders in children affairs during a ‘scientific’ dialogue commemorating the 2021 International Day for Children in Street Situations at the National Children Authority (NCA) offices in Ntinda on Monday.

The commemoration at the NCA office in Ntinda had both a physical and virtual audience

One thing was immediately clear. Samson longs to return to school – at least by his admission.

“I love education. I may be 16, but if I got someone offering to pay my school fees, I am willing and ready to continue where I left from – in Primary Three,” he said.

He has been wiser not to allow himself get sucked into the conspicuous street lifestyle of taking substances, such as drugs, and inhaling the dangerously addictive jet fuel. For the latter, even passive indulgence has an effect on him.

“If someone sniffs jet fuel near me, I get a stomach upset. When I move away, I instantly feel better,” said Samson, who has to periodically travel back to Kooki to collect more antiretroviral drugs (ARVs).

He also knows how mortally hazardous sniffing jet fuel can be.

“Out on the streets, I learnt that inhaling jet fuel is dangerous and that the body can even stop functioning without it, hence the addiction. One time, this boy in our area decided to quit the jet fuel. He died a week later.”

Samson’s story and that of some of other fellow street-connected children who attended Monday’s event, some virtually due to coronavirus pandemic restrictions, lent a sobering dimension to a candid discussion on how best stakeholders can help get children off the streets so that it is not their permanent place.

“The children who are on the street have a family, but circumstances have forced them to the street,” said Damon Wamara, the executive director of Uganda Child Rights NGO Network (UCRNN), a coalition of child-focused organizations working for the welfare and the rights of children.

UCRNN executive director Damon Wamara said thousands of street-connected children are stateless because they have no national IDs

Wamara identified two categories of children who are on the streets.

“There are those who are there because they have left or have been abandoned by their families, and then there are those whose families are sending them to the street as a source of income.”

‘A day for us to take stock’

Over 35,000 children are living and working in deplorable and desperate conditions on the streets across Uganda, said Wamara. Nearly half of these have lost one of or both their parents, like Samson, according to a 2019 study conducted across 20 districts in the country.

Calling Monday’s commemoration, which was themed Access to Services, “a day for us to take stock”, NCA executive director Martin Kiiza said withdrawing children from the streets requires a collaborative effort by all stakeholders and that the discussion on how to achieve that should be a “routine practice”.

“As stakeholders, we have to ensure that the children are withdrawn from the streets and are integrated in their families and other friendly spaces. So we have to work together,” he said.

Kiiza said the National Child Policy, launched in October last year, is a key document in these efforts as it addresses child wellbeing in breadth.

National Children Authority executive director Martin Kiiza said helping children off the streets requires a collaborative effort

During the dialogue, a short video was played showing children who live on the streets voicing their experiences and how they want authorities to intervene in their situation. Some want access to medical care and education while others want shelter and national identity cards.

For all of them, being treated with some measure of dignity would be a dream come true.

 ‘We have the potential’

Through their representatives, children on the streets presented a handwritten letter to the Minister of State for Youth and Children Affairs, Florence Nakiwala Kiyingi, in which they highlight the problems they face on the streets and how they want Government to intervene.

In the letter dated April 9, 2021, the children say they “find it so difficult to actually stay alive”.

The challenge of finding what to eat forces most of them into “eating leftovers in rubbish pits or else we have to walk long distances to find what to eat through collecting plastic bottles, scrap, boxes and even washing people's utensils and clothes so as to earn a living".

They also talk of being arrested "most of the time simply because of having no place to stay/call home and because of our physical appearance of having no proper clothing".

"We are also chased off the streets, leading us into trenches, sewage pipes and also jumping into people's fences so as to seek refuge from the rough police officers or soldiers" they add, also mentioning that they find difficulty in accessing medical care for such diseases as typhoid and malaria, “leading to sudden deaths".

"We also have a problem of segregation and mistrust from most people since most of them think all street children are thieves and pickpockets. Due to most of these problems, most of us even end up taking drugs and alcohol, sometimes getting addicted.

"Our wish is to get education so that we can become responsible people (...) because we know and believe we have the potential."

Also on their wish list is for Government to "set up a place for us to get something to eat and seek medical care from".

Maureen Atuhaire, the Commissioner of Police's Child and Family Protection Department, agreed that the way children are arrested on the streets is an issue. She said training law enforcement personnel is necessary, as is the involvement of parents and guardians in this cause.

“Policing does not apply only to security forces. It involves all stakeholders,” she said.

According to Atuhaire, child-friendly spaces in police stations should be created to encourage reporting of cases against children. She re-echoed the need “to have a shared platform to address these concerns and work together”.

Art work done by street-connected children was put up on display during the commemoration

Taking children off the streets needs to be done in a “coordinated manner”, according to KCCA’s Probation and Social Welfare Officer, Zaina Nakubulwa.

“Streets don’t give birth to children. It may not be easy to rescue all the children from the streets, but we can reduce the number through voluntary rescue and working with partners,” she told the dialogue.

Meanwhile, some of the street-connected children were eager to debunk some of the stereotypes of children on the streets.

“Not all the children on the streets are thieves,” said one who attended the commemoration. “In fact, some older or bullish intruders steal our money and even beat us.”

This lad, whom we are calling John to protect his identity, has been on the streets for not longer than three weeks and already, he wants out.

The first-born of three children, John and his siblings remained with their father when their mother reportedly left them and never returned. Later, the alleged mistreatment he suffered at the hands of their step-mother was too much for him to bear, which forced him to run away from Entebbe to the streets of Kampala.

He may be only two weeks old on the streets, but already, John is fed up.

Standard operating procedures were observed

‘They need IDs’

Faith Kembabazi, the executive director of Children at Risk Action Network (CRANE) presented a united voice by civil society organisations on how access to essential services for children in street situations can be enhanced.

She said the COVID-19 pandemic has “disproportionately” affected street-connected children, who end up on the streets due to domestic violence, family discord, poverty, child neglect, peer pressure, war and natural calamities.

Studies have also found that opportunities to work, adventure, availability of NGO services and opportunities to take drugs also attract children to the streets.

And it is these pull and push factors that CSOs believe need to be holistically addressed, said Kembabazi, “to reduce the prevalence and predicament of children in street situations”.

“Addressing high levels of poverty in vulnerable households that incapacitate their ability to provide basic needs and high levels of violence against children, all of which push children to the streets and also gravely impacts them while they are on the streets, are critical.”

During the commemoration, CRANE executive director Faith Kembabazi (left) presented a report on children in street children to NCA executive director Martin Kiiza

CSOs rallied the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) and gender ministry to “proactively” support street-connected children to obtain legal identity cards so they can gain access to some basic services, such as education, justice and welfare support.

The children can also be provided with informal or temporary IDs that are linked to CSOs that support them.

Another intervention suggested by the CSOs is prioritizing and emphasizing child-friendly protection as opposed to punishment of street-connected children.

They urged law enforcement agencies to exercise restraint when dealing with such children and instead protect them from “disproportionate, unlawful and discriminatory tendencies meted out on them simply because they were found on the streets”.

Equally important, the CSOs said, is for the gender ministry to ensure street-connected children get safe temporary accommodation with access to basics such as water, food and health care.

“The gender and education ministries should work with CSOs to ensure children in street situations access alternative forms of education and learning that is suitable to their needs, situation and abilities,” added Kembabazi.

NCA chief Martin Kiiza said the rehabilitation process should allow for rescued children to get access to education.

For Samson and other street-connected children eager to realign their aspirations by leaving the streets to return to school, this will have been music to their ears.