Street children's day: 'Let's show them Christ's love'

Apr 11, 2020

"The situation is now very tense and the street-connected children are being hit particularly hard by this pandemic," says Damon Wamara of Dwelling Places.

INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR STREET CHILDREN - APRIL 12

By Joseph Kizza

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Twitter: @joekizza

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For the first time since Uganda started to commemorate the International Day for Street Children 10 years ago, the day has fallen on Easter Sunday.

And this coincidence "is not a mistake", according to Damon Wamara, the country director of Dwelling Places, a Christian NGO that provides holistic care services to, among other groups, former street-connected children and high-risk slum families.

Instead, it is "by design from the Almighty God", he adds.

Yet, this is not your ordinary climax to the Holy Week. Easter Sunday has come at a time when the entire world is dealing with the pervasive coronavirus crisis. Just like in many parts of the world, churches here in Uganda will remain shut.

With citizens confined to their homes due to restrictive lockdown measures, Christians are limited to attending Easter Mass and Service remotely - on TVs, radio and online.

Meanwhile, this year's International Day for Street Children is themed 'Safe spaces for street-connected children' and campaigners are urging Government to ensure the safety and protection of the children living and working on the streets, especially during this delicate period of the coronavirus pandemic.

"The situation is now very tense and the street-connected children are being hit particularly hard by this pandemic," says Wamara in a statement released Saturday.

"We know that the coronavirus spreads rapidly between people, and we also know that street and slum populations will be the most severely impacted, because they have very limited access to water, sanitation and health services."

 amon amara says this is Damon Wamara of Dwelling Places says the coronavirus pandemic presents a "tense" situation



Government, through the gender, labour and social development ministry, developed a plan to cater for the disadvantaged groups most prone to COVID-19 effects. Street-connected children have been rightly considered.

As an organisation that works at the frontline of rescue, rehabilitation, reconciliation and sustainable resettlement efforts of street-connected children, Dwelling Places has hailed the collaborative efforts by Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), the gender, labour and social development mininstry and the Street Children Working Group to mobilise street children in Kampala to accommodate them at Nakivubo Blue Primary School for 14 days of quarantine.

During this period, the targeted at least 500 street children are to be screened for the coronavirus, taken through hygiene lessons for their safety and also be fed.

But after the 14 days have elapsed, then what?

"You are aware the COVID-19 pandemic does not discriminate. We, therefore, call upon everyone from all walks of life that this Easter season, let us show the love of Christ to these children," says Wamara, in a way urging actors that have enough capacity to take up these children after their time at the school.

Globally, the pandemic has infected 1.7 million people and killed more than 100,000.

Uganda has not registered any COVID-19 related death. In fact, after three weeks in hospital, 18 of the 53 people that were found to have the virus in Uganda have been cleared to leave hospital after recovering fully from COVID-19. Four of them, including the index case, were discharged on Saturday. The rest are expected to be released between today (Sunday) and Monday.

Ugandans will have been even more re-energized by the news that all the 555 samples tested on Saturday at the Uganda Virus Research Institute in Entebbe were negative.


But away from this success in Uganda's war against coronavirus, child rights campaigners like Dwelling Places are worried about what is happening on the streets, reporting that street children are being roughed up by law enforcement agents during curfew time (7pm - 6:30am).

"They have nowhere to go as the streets is their shelter," says Wamara, adding that one street child is lying in coma at Mulago Hospital in Kampala after being reportedly brutally hit by security agents during a patrol in Kisenyi, a slum area of Kampala.

It is understood that he was beaten up as he and his mates were attempting to flee from the law enforcement officers, who eventually rounded them up.

"We ask that, as law enforcement officers implement directives, they should do it in the most humane manner possible that does not reduce a child's dignity as well as violate that child's rights as stipulated in the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, which Uganda is a signatory to.

"We ask the Uganda Human Rights Commission to look into these continuous violent acts against children in street situations," weighs in Wamara.

So what is the biggest threat to street children in these difficult times of a deadly pandemic?

Pascal Lutaaya is the director of Kampala-based Mengo Youth Development Link, an NGO that works to empower street children, vulnerable youths and sex workers. He says the greatest threat to the safety of street children right now is their way of living.

"Since they move about and stay together - and in close proximity with other communities, once one gets infected, the entire group also gets infected," he says.

"Many of the street children do not have where to stay - they sleep in corridors of buildings, verandahs or out in the open. Those who sleep in groups have to cuddle in the night for warmth - it can get very cold out there.

"And for those who sleep in slums, you can find as many as 10 children in one tiny room. If one of them gets infected with the coronavirus, it can spread uncontrollably from then on," explains Lutaaya.

Meanwhile, Wamara has hailed Government's relief food distribution initiative targeting the vulnerable people affected by the coronavirus lockdown. The exercise, which has seen the provision of maize flour, beans, salt, powdered milk and sugar to the people of Kampala and Wakiso, kicked off last Saturday.

 policeA police officer is pictured after delivering a relief food package to a home in Bwaise last Saturday on the first day of the food distribution exercise

 

In the same spirit, he is also urging all stakeholders - Government, legislators, parents, communities and CSOs - to play their part in ensuring an all-inclusive society, where particularly children that have been separated from their families are protected and feel safe.

This is a call similar to one made a couple of days ago by UN human rights experts, who appealed to states to ramp up child protection measures to help safeguard the welfare of children who may be more exposed to violence, sale, trafficking, sexual abuse and exploitation during the coronavirus crisis.

Dutch Maud de Boer-Buquicchio is the UN Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children.

She is quoted as saying: "At a time of lockdowns and isolation at home and elsewhere, children are at a greater risk of experiencing violence and exploitation, as well as challenges to their mental health."

As the war against the new coronavirus rages on across the planet, keen observers are expected to turn their attentions on the critical issue of insulating street-connected children against harm at a time when Christians are seeking solace in Christ's resurrection.


Also related to this story

Safe spaces: Amplifying voices of street-connected children

COVID-19: Are street children safe?





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