Areas of Implementation: Rwenzori region, Kabarole district of Uganda
Period: January 2020 - December 2022
Action to End Violence Against Children in Families, Schools and Communities in Kabarole District, is a three-year project. It’s main goal is to contribute to the reduction of violence against children in targeted families, schools and communities.
Violence against children undermines every other investment in children. It compromises their health, education, development and future opportunities, with negative lifelong impacts and inter-generational consequences.
Such violence is most commonly perpetrated by people with whom children interact with every day. It is sad that the places where children should feel safe such as homes, schools and communities are the very places where they experience violence in different forms.
Globally it is estimated that in 2015, close to 1.7 billion children had experienced interpersonal violence in the previous year. A child dies as a result of violence every five minutes.
Violence against children happens everywhere across poor and rich countries. However, poverty is a risk factor in violence against children, and has serious ramifications for children’s vulnerability. The incidence of poverty remains highest in rural areas including Kabarole district in Rwenzori region, Western Uganda. The rural areas with 85 percent of Uganda’s population constitute 94.4 percent of national poverty.
Of the people trapped in poverty, children bear the greatest brunt. Poverty affects children’s access to education, and results in early entry into work, which exposes children to exploitation (including sexual exploitation) and other hazardous working conditions, early pregnancy, child marriage and motherhood.
Joy For Children Uganda is the lead agency and the grant holder for the cluster partnership with Kaana Foundation for Outreach Programs (KAFOP) whose major operation base is in Western Uganda.
ABOUT CLUSTER PARTNERS
KAFOP’s mission is enlightening and empowering communities to promote, protect and advocate for the Rights and Welbeing of the most vulnerable persons. It envisions a community where all people live a safe, free and dignified life.
KAFOP is a member of Girls not brides Uganda with one of the staff serving on the steering committee.
Long Term Outcome:
A safe and enabling violence free environment for all children at home, school and community.
The project’s contributions:
- Create a safe and secure violent free school environment where children are able to enroll, be retained and complete primary education with good learning outcomes.
- Supportive and secure family setting where children and adolescents can grow free from violence.
- Strengthen collaboration and support of existing community structures and systems for sustained primary prevention of VAC.
- Create safe spaces for adolescents and young mothers out of school .
- Strengthen the capacity of cluster member organisations to achieve the goal of the project.
OUR IMPLEMENTATION PLAN:
To achieve the goal we will carry out prevention interventions that focus on family, community and schools:
At the family level:
We will focus on positive parenting: We believe that parents need to feel the “power to parent” so as to influence the future of their children in a positive way. By working with parents on how to become better parents, the project will work with parents on skillful Parenting to prevent child abuse, neglect and family disintegration. The project will also work towards improving spousal relationships.
The project will provide interventions that increase household income mainly through VSLA. The VSLA are planned to meet weekly and will also provide space for learning about positive parenting. We will also conduct home visits for households in need extra attention or support to prevent VAC as identified by Community Based Facilitators.
At School level:
We will create safe school environment by strengthening existing structures and utilizing available opportunities in schools such as Parents Teachers Associations (PTA), School Management Committees, Disciplinary Committee and prefects’ bodies opportunities in schools such as Parents Teachers Associations through trainings, meetings, routine school support visits.
And at the community level:
We will carry out activities that address norms and values as well mitigating violence against children out of school. The activities that will include community dialogues, radio dramas and training. We shall work to address widely, persistent and deep-rooted norms and values that perpetuate VAC.
