Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Organizations involved in rescuing children engaged in risky behavior like those living on the streets, sex trade and child labour want the government to increase funding to children programs.
Faith Kembabazi, the Director for Children at Risk Action Network, an umbrella for organizations dealing with children says the children can be supported directly by promoting programs that include rescuing them and rehabilitating them but also empower poor families from which these children come.
Kembabazi says that poverty in families affects how children are taken care of, and that this acts as a push factor for children ending up on the streets because of none pleasant conditions at home. Children who are being abused in families or subjected to child labour can be rescued such that they do not end up on the streets of Kampala as they run away from their tormentors.
According to Kampala Capital City Authority-KCCA, there are over 300 children living on the streets, the majority of whom come from neighbouring districts of Wakiso, Mpigi and Mukono. Last week, the Authority working with Non-Government Organisations rescued over 170 children from the streets and quarantined them at Nakivubo Blue Primary School where they are still being kept.
From there, the children will be sent to rehabilitation centers before they are reunited with their respective families or taken for vocational training. However, a number of children end returning to the streets after escaping from rehabilitation centers or their homes after being reunited with their families.
Maureen Muwonge, the Director of Operations at Dwelling Places, an NGO that deals with street children says that the children escape from home when they find that the conditions for which they left their homes still exist. Children cite torture by parents and guardians as one of the reasons that push them off to the streets.
Muwonge says that the children also escape from rehabilitation centers if they fail to cope with the new environment where there are guidelines, rules and restrictions. “Children from the street are used to fighting, use of abusive language and abuse of drugs, when I tell you no using drugs, I expect you to follow. It is not instant, change is a process so that’s what we do, rehabilitate them” says Muwonge.
At Dwelling Places, Muwonge says that since change is a process, they allow children who have escaped from the center to return up to three times. This is meant to encourage them to not give up on the changing process.
Olive Kitui, the Director Mengo Youth Link, an organisation that also deals with rescuing and educating children from the streets says that that one of the best practice of dealing with the issue of street children is enrolling them into school. She says at her organisation, when they rescue children from the streets, they take them through basic education under the center and then enroll them into the formal school system for education.
KCCA plans to take children at Nakivubo Blue Primary School to rehabilitation centers. As for those still on the streets, KCCA is still looking for finances to rescue them.
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