Vision Reporter

The First Lady and Minister for Karamoja Affairs, Mrs. Janet Museveni, has urged parents to provide effective care and guidance for their children and fight hard to counter the adverse foreign influences that the children are absorbing at a tender and impressionable age through such media as television and the Internet.

She said children and young adults have been mostly influenced by the advent of foreign culture and lifestyles because the families have failed to instil in them the traditional culture and behavioural norms as it used to be in the past.

Mrs. Museveni (third right), Nnabagereka (second right) and finance minister Maria Kiwanuka (right) inspecting crafts made by participants in the Ekisaakaate at St. Lawrence Citizen High School — Crown City campus in Mpigi on Sunday

Mrs. Museveni was speaking during the closing ceremony of the ninth “Ekisaakaate kya Nnabagereka” at St. Lawrence Citizen High School — Crown City campus in Mpigi district on Sunday.

She pointed out the dangerous trend cropping up in the country, where young girls get sexually active and end up getting pregnant.

“Indeed, we are beginning to witness the danger of letting our young people grow up in complete ignorance of the good that is contained in their traditions and cultures. For example, there is a disturbing trend in Uganda today of very young girls becoming sexually active at an early age and becoming prematurely pregnant,” Mrs. Museveni said.

“This trend can be directly linked to a careless home upbringing of our children, who do not receive timely instructions and caution about the dangers and taboos of illicit sexual activities.

Such instruction must be given by the family while the pre-puberty child is still in the hands of her parents,” she said.

The First Lady appealed to Ugandans to resist the foreign dominance that is detrimental to our children.

She commended the Nnabagereka, Sylvia Nagginda, also the founder of Nnabagereka
Development Foundation, for bridging the gap by teaching traditional values and culture to children through the Ekisaakaate.

Josephine Namiggo being helped by an old man to carry the gifts of her son Davis Senyomo (right) after he was rewarded for being best youth performer in Buganda cultural issues at St. Lawrence Citizen High School-Crown City Campus in Mpigi district. PHOTO/ Francis Emorut

She described the innovation as a value-addition to the development of the nation’s children.

“I want to take this opportunity to urge all other regions of Uganda to borrow a leaf from what the Nnabagereka has done for the Buganda region and take the trouble to supplement the school curriculum with their own efforts at instructing the young in the virtues and positive values of their own culture and languages,” she said.

“This is an effort which cannot be undertaken by the Government, but must rather spring from a personal and voluntary concern about filling the gap that is so evident in the upbringing and nurturing of the children of this nation.”

Mrs. Museveni encouraged Ugandans of all walks of life to embrace the children’s camp because the future well-being of this nation depends on giving our children this good foundation.

The Ekisaakaate, the brainchild of the Nnabagereka, is a children skills training camp, which brings together children from Buganda and other regions whose parents are interested in their learning of the Kiganda culture and other good human ethical behaviour.

The Nnabagereka emphasised the importance of character development in early childhood, saying that through the Ekisaakaate, they instill values and help to bring up well-behaved children.

She encouraged parents to always talk to their children and work with the Ekisaakaate facilitators to help their children embrace what they are taught during the two-week holiday training programme.

She said the programme is being implemented in some schools and the diaspora with one already done in Canada and others planned for the US, UK, Sweden and South Africa.

She also revealed a plan to start constructing the Ekisaakaate headquarters in Ssisa Wakiso district this year, which will be called “The Royal Enclosure Youth Centre of Excellence” (Ekisaakaate Kya Nnabagereka).

She called for support from the population towards the project.

Other people who spoke during the ceremony were the speaker of Buganda’s Lukiiko, Nelson Kawalya, who represented the Katikkiro of Buganda; the chairperson of Ekisaakaate kya Nnabagereka board, Kabuuza Mukasa; the chief executive officer Nnabagereka Development Foundation, Solome Nakaweesi-Kimbugwe and the principal St. Lawrence schools and colleges, Prof. Lawrence Mukiibi.

Guests were entertained by the children who displayed traditional values they had been taught during the camp.

The best student in the ninth Kisaakaate, Davis Ssenyomo, received a prize of a laptop.

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