Street-connected children need extreme care and protection

OPINION

By Timothy Opobo

A night stroll through areas around Dancers Club, a popular club in Salama, is disturbing. Girls donning skimpy skirts, tight leggings, and heavy makeup precariously negotiate their way through the mob to get to their station of work.

In order to survive life on the street, these girls have been forced to sell sexual favors.

A study conducted by the AfriChild Centre in Makerere University on violence perpetrated against street-connected children indicates that prostitution and defilement are some of the prominent risky sexual experiences the street children in Kampala are exposed to.

Both girls and boys reported reluctantly agreeing to have sex among themselves or with other adults in exchange for food, money, and warmth. Rape was reported more among girls who said that their assailants are older men who attack them when they are sleeping

These children, aged mostly between 7 and 17 years, are many times completely on their own. This makes them vulnerable to sexual and physical abuse, human trafficking, drug abuse, early pregnancies, and forced labor.

They tend to indulge in child prostitution with greater freedom to experiment since they lack adult protection. Many of them display symptoms of severe depression and anxiety.

Hitherto, not much attention has been paid to street-connected children until independent investigations revealed that they are involved in criminal activities around cities. In an effort to curb this phenomenon in Kampala, Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) established the Kampala Child Protection Ordinance, 2019.

This ordinance criminalizes the loitering, begging, solicitation, vending, hawking among children on the street and bans the sale of alcohol and drugs to children. It also makes it an offence to offer money, food or clothing to children living on the streets.

Furthermore, Parliament recently approved a UGX 3.4b supplementary budget for the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development that is supposed to be used in resettling these children into their families.

Nevertheless, despite the above initiatives, insufficient data on the nature and extent of children's vulnerability in Uganda continues to present a challenge to government, civil society and development partners in priority setting, resource allocation and developing effective approaches to improve the well-being of these children.

It is difficult to estimate accurately the number of children living on the streets in Uganda. Some organizations put their number at 15,000 while others at 18,000. However, one thing is certain, their number has increased insidiously in recent years due to various factors including poverty, migration and violence.

The need to find lasting solutions to these ever-growing numbers cannot be overemphasized. However, in order to deal with them, there is need to create a climate of open communication with them in order to understand their priorities.

As a government, civil society organizations and parents, there is a need to avoid patronizing them and letting them know that we care. Most street children spend considerable time with their peers and thus peer-based learning and action is imperative.

Building on their experiences and using them to teach one another creates a sense of ownership among them and also builds confidence in bettering their lives.

As a contribution to identifying solutions, the AfriChild Centre has organized a public dialogue on street-connected children scheduled to take place on October 18th, 2019 at the Food Science Department Conference Hall at Makerere University starting at 9:00 am.

Themed: ‘The Plight of street-connected children in Uganda-Are we doing enough?', the dialogue will provide a forum for dissemination of knowledge, exchange of innovations and best practices that will better inform responses to street children.

The public dialogue will bring together researchers, policymakers and practitioners to share their knowledge and experiences, as well as reflect on innovative ways to improve the quality of life for children who live and work on the streets.

From this dialogue, it is expected that a research agenda on issues pertaining to street-connected children will be developed and a communique with recommended strategies to prevent and respond to the phenomenon of street-connected children in Uganda produced.

Come and let's deliberate on putting an end to the challenge of street-connected children in Uganda.

The writer is the Acting Executive Director of the AfriChild Centre.