Norway earmarks over sh44b to support Uganda children
Mar 26, 2019
“Uganda has one of the youngest populations in the world; it harbours one of the biggest number of refugees and many other things that make children vulnerable..."
EDUCATION
KAMPALA - The Norwegian Agency for development has kicked off a five-year programme to fund child education, protection, rights, and disaster risk reduction in Uganda through Save the Children.
The Norwegian Krone 103m (about sh44. 6b) will be used to implement the above programmes in Northern Uganda, covering four districts of Gulu, Nwoya, Amuru and Omoro.
The funding process begins Tuesday March 26 with an engagement meeting between Save the Children, implementing partners including Vision Group and NORAD (the funders) at the Royal Suites Bugoloobi in Kampala.
Vision Group was represented by John Eremu the features editor and his deputy Joy Esther Abo in this engagement.
Edison Nsubuga, the head of education at Save the Children Uganda noted that: "Uganda has one of the youngest populations in the world; it harbours one of the biggest number of refugees and many other things that make children vulnerable. Save the Children's commitment is to support Uganda's children to learn, survive and be protected."
Nsubuga added that they intend to deliver their plan through partnership with potential like-minded organisations.
Ina Boe, an Associate Area director Save the Children Norway, said Save the children started working with Uganda in the 1980s, they worked on ABEK in Karamoja from the late 1990.
"During the time, the situation in Karamoja was volatile, people believed in the culture of men being part of an army and not to engage in any other productive activity, the children didn't think something like academics exist," Boe said.
The main purpose of the NORAD Civil society grant is to contribute to a strong and independent local and national civil society and its ability to promote human rights, contribute to democratic development and poverty reduction in line with the sustainable development goals.
While addressing the issue of child rights protection, Geoffrey Oyat, an expert in child protection programming at Save the Children Uganda noted that as part of the global theme: Introduction to child right programming, we should also campaign for our systems to start accepting, for example, young mothers to return to school without facing any stigma or challenges from any kind of situations.