"Heights to the generation"

CHILD PROTECTION

PROGRAM

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CHILD PROTECTION

Every child deserves to have a life free from child abuse and all their right protected. The girls need to be married at the right stage and at their will. The boys need to be involved in appropriate work and free from child labor. With this, Kkuza Children’s foundation are concerned with the high rates of teenage pregnancy and child neglect which drove us to create a child protection program.

Parents end up often forcing their children into early marriages that can result in teenage pregnancy because of the poverty and ignorance they face. This causes a lot of problems within the family as well as the teenager, who can experience trauma, diseases, family separation, early responsibilities and other medical issues. This is one of the biggest cases within the child protection program that we want to make and see a change to.

The child protection program mainly focuses on sensitization and education, case management, behavior changes, career development of children, capacity for systems and structures (law enforcement), parenting skills and safe guarding. In the department, we work on all forms of child abuse, sexual, physical and emotional abuse of children.

KCF is working to provide a protective environment for children in the communities where its programs are implemented. In this empowering communities, local leaders through trainings and awareness and sensitization raising and dialogues to reach grass root stakeholders.

We have a dream to build a Rehabilitation Center/home for survivors of Child abandonment, where these Children and victims of teenage pregnancy would be protected, go through trauma counseling as we work on the investigations, follow-up with the case and tracing the families of the abandoned children.

The services that we provide to ensure we see a positive change include Rescues, Investigations, Medical care, tracing families, Court follow up and rehabilitation of children and teenagers.

We have supported different children and teenagers within Butambala district. One of the teenagers that we supported was an 18-year-old girl, Sarah who was impregnated and then abandoned by a fellow teenager because of the fear of responsibilities. Sarah was forced to move back to her mother’s place where they both struggled living in poverty and were fearful of bringing a baby into the home. Kkuza was able to support Sarah leading up to the birth as well as when she gave birth. Through doing this it brought hope to both Sarah and the mother and the baby was born healthy.

We are looking forward to supporting many more children and teenagers who have faced various issues including teenage pregnancy and child neglect.

GLOBAL SNAPSHOT OF CHILD MARRIAGE

1 in 5 girls

In the world are said to be married before 18.

650 Millions

Over 650 million women alive today were married as children

12 Millions

Girls are married before the age of 18 each year.

Pregnancy among adolescents is happening as a result of two main aspects; sexual violence and adolescents engaging in unprotected sex.

Preventing and contrasting Teenage pregnancy is a cornerstone of our work. Girls face huge challenges because they are young mothers.

Our Strategy

What we must do

We all need to listen to what adolescent girls and children are telling us. We must listen and act now. A practical way of ensuring that adolescent girls and children feel protected is first giving them the care and support that they need when they have been violated or abused, such as post-rape care and psychosocial support.

In addition, we should support them and stand with them to report and speak out against perpetrators — we should never allow ourselves to protect the perpetrators regardless of who they are.

Create a system in partnership with schools to a) monitor pregnant teenagers, in order to make sure they receive assistance and they are assured education during and after pregnancy; b) enrich students’ curricula with educational activities on life orientation, teenage pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections and family planning;

We must, therefore, learn to speak to our children about their sexuality without sexualising them

We must also be awake to the fact that adolescents are having sex amongst themselves. Adolescents and particularly girls need information on what sex is and how they can protect themselves. When information about sexuality is taught to children by trusted adults, they will tend to understand and take it to heart. We must, therefore, learn to speak to our children about their sexuality without sexualising them.

Recorded cases

At least 644,955 teenage pregnancies were recorded during the COVID-19 lockdown in Uganda, according to the United Nations Population Fund-UNFPA.

Figures from the agency show that since March 2020 when COVID-19 hit the world, an estimated 354,736 teenage pregnancies were reported following the closure of all schools in the country for at least eight months. An additional 290,219 pregnancies were reported between January and September 2021.

The number of recorded pregnancies is five times higher than the number of cumulative COVID-19 positive cases that have been reported since 2020.

Some of the districts that recorded the highest number of teenage pregnancies were Wakiso with 10,439 followed by Kampala with 8,460 cases. This was followed by Kasese with 7,317 cases, Kamuli with 6,535 reported cases, and Oyam with 6,449.

How about the thousands of teenage pregnancy cases that go unreported and the hundreds of girls who, out of fear and shame end up procuring abortion? Pregnancy among adolescents is happening as a result of 2 main aspects; sexual violence and adolescents engaging in unprotected sex. In addition to this, there is the additional risk to consider of adolescent girls and children contracting HIV and STIs.

NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF TEENAGE PREGNANCY

Girls face huge challenges because they are married as children.

Isolated and with limited freedom, married girls often feel disempowered. They are deprived of their fundamental rights to health, education and safety.

Teenagers are neither physically nor emotionally ready to become wives and mothers. They face more risks of experiencing dangerous complications in pregnancy and childbirth, of contracting HIV/AIDS and suffering domestic violence.

With little access to education and economic opportunities, girls and their new families are more likely to live in poverty. Communities and nations feel the impact of child marriage, too. Societies that undervalue the contribution and participation of girls and women limit their own possibilities for growth, stability and transformation.

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