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Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children Uganda [ Country-by-Country
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FEATURED ARTICLE *** Uganda:
Forced onto the streets to please the men The day of the street children
starts early, as early as 4:00am. They wake and walk the three to four 4km
from the village to Jinja town. The children are
divided into groups, each entrusted with a task for the day. This can be anything from rooting through
the garbage skips, visiting the abattoir for meat left overs,
collecting firewood and charcoal or scrap metal to sell. They are also
expected to return with money, leading to their daily street begging that we
are all witness to. However, we are not witness to the
beating they receive when return home empty-handed because no kind uncle has
flicked them a grubby coin or two. At
around 8:00pm the children return home and hand in their day's earnings and
gatherings. They will get a small meal if they are lucky and then go to bed,
ready to start the whole onslaught the next day. Some children do not even have a
family to return to; classed as 'fulltime' they are runaways and occupy the
streets twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. ***
ARCHIVES *** Video Playlists for Uganda [part 1] [part 2] - There are an increasing number
of street children videos now available that constitute a supplementary source
of information for researchers, especially for those who may not have
experienced the reality of street children.
[Playlist developed by Brian Horne of almudo.com & streetkidnews.blogsome.com] UNICEF - The Big Picture U.S.
Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs [4074] A 1999 study estimated that
5,000 children beg, wash cars, scavenge, work in the commercial sex industry,
and sell small items on the streets of Kampala. Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005 CHILDREN - Approximately 35 thousand
children, known as "night commuters", traveled from conflict areas
or IDP camps each night to urban centers to avoid abduction by the LRA. In
September the UN estimated that nearly 9 thousand children commuted nightly
into Gulu town and 10,847 commuted in Kitgum. During the year the government
cooperated with NGOs to establish shelters for such children in tented
dormitories and other semi-permanent structures; in other cases children
slept under balconies or on the grounds of schools, churches, and hospitals.
Conditions ranged from harsh to adequate. There were credible reports that
many displaced girls became involved in prostitution. SECTION 6
WORKER RIGHTS – [d]
In urban areas children sold small items on the streets, were involved in the
commercial sex industry, worked in shops, or begged for money. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2005 [71] The Committee is deeply
concerned at the increasing number of street children, especially in Uganda:
NRM Has Brought Robust Growth in Street People Having lived and worked in Kampala
for a fairly long time, I will be the first to admit that street children are
to some extent one of the key defining features of Kampala. The pull factors for leaving home
and going to live on the streets include the excitement and glamour of living
in a city; hope of raising living standard; financial wellbeing. The social worker told me that it is
particularly difficult to convince families to get off the street because the
amount of money that street people make from begging is usually a lot higher
than what they can make from entry level vocations. Children
warn profiteers from war “If Joseph Kony,
the leader of the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA)
denounces rebellion, we shall all abandon the street, go back home and start
living normal lives” About one in four ugandan households have two or more orphans. The
responsibility of raising these children is not easy and even providing them
with basic necessities does not come that cheap. With the development of
anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) people living with HIV
have managed to stay healthy longer, but not everyone can afford the
life-prolonging drugs. According to some estimates, less than half of the
300,000 Ugandans in need of ARVs have regular
access to them. Without a source of income, children are particularly
vulnerable. Many of these children
have turned up in the streets of Kampala, to try and eke out a living by
begging, doing menial jobs or stealing. The lucky few have been taken in by
charities and foster families. But those without assistance of
any kind are a disturbing majority. Isabirye Hassan, a councillor in Kampala City Council, says the capital’s
streets have been taken over by street children who engage in crimes like pickpocketing and prostitution. Once in a while the city council rounds up
street children and takes them to Kampiringisa
rehabilitation centre where they receive training and counselling.
However, with a high unemployment rate in the country, many of them return to
the streets soon after they are discharged. Uganda:
Busia Leaders Team Up to Address Sex Trade, Street Children The influx of Kenyan refugees
following the election violence has fuelled sex trade among under age girls
in the district. The Ugandan girls
aged between 11-18 years are a big attraction to many. "They charge as
low sh500 for sex per hour," said a resident. The looming sex trade
coupled with the influx of street children has prompted the Government and Busia district leaders to seek solutions to avert what
they described as "a looming crisis". Busia district
probation officer, Julius Ogalo said there are at
least 400 street children in the municipality alone."Most
of these street children are Karimojongs who come
to engage in petty business and smuggling along the border," he said. - sccp A
Canadian 'mother' for six Ugandan kids She learned the six unrelated
children had been living on the street, begging as a group for six months.
Only one of them had a living parent, a mother whom Travers later helped
locate, while the rest of them were alone. And she learned that the children
didn't want to be separated, something they faced if they went to one of the
shelters in the area. Orphans still living in refugee
camps, where they often struggle to get by, are worried about what will
happen to them when they eventually have to leave. Scovia Akello, 16, sitting in front of her dingy hut at Koch Goma refugee camp in Amuru,
said she was concerned about what she could feed her hungry brothers and
sisters. "There is no food and I don't
have money. I don't know what we shall eat today. I have four other sisters,
and seeing them hungry [plays on] my nerves even more." Akello does not
know where she and her sisters will go once the refugee camp where she lives
finally closes. She knows little about her home village or her
relatives. "My mother once said
our village is in Olwiyo, but I don't know where
the village is. I don't even know anyone there, not even where our home was
once located,” said Akello. - sccp Uganda:
True Vine Ministries Gives Street Children Lifeline One of the recent projects
undertaken by the organisation was the
rehabilitation and return of street children to school under a programme managed by Smile Africa Ministries, a Tororo based Christian Organisation. The Executive Director, Smile Africa
Ministries, Pastor Ruth Kawa said at least 293
children had been picked from the streets and rehabilitated before being sent
back to school. Uganda:
Forced onto the streets to please the men The day of the street children
starts early, as early as 4:00am. They wake and walk the three to four 4km
from the village to Jinja town. The children are
divided into groups, each entrusted with a task for the day. This can be anything from rooting through
the garbage skips, visiting the abattoir for meat left overs,
collecting firewood and charcoal or scrap metal to sell. They are also
expected to return with money, leading to their daily street begging that we
are all witness to. However, we are not witness to the
beating they receive when return home empty-handed because no kind uncle has
flicked them a grubby coin or two. At
around 8:00pm the children return home and hand in their day's earnings and
gatherings. They will get a small meal if they are lucky and then go to bed,
ready to start the whole onslaught the next day. Some children do not even have a
family to return to; classed as 'fulltime' they are runaways and occupy the
streets twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Let us
reach out to the suffering street kids Hauling water, firewood, eating
from garbage bins on the streets and sniffing glue, such is the life of a
street child in Kampala. No chance for an education, no escape from the cycle
of poverty, no hope and (oftentimes) no parents. Who is working on behalf of
this child? NGOs do a lot of work with
orphans and HIV positive children, but there seems to be a much smaller
number working with street children to deal with the root cause of the
phenomena. Uganda:
Beggars, Street Children a Burden in the City Over the years the number of
beggars and street children on Kampala streets has grown tremendously. Most of these unprivileged people come from
upcountry in hope of better life in the city but end up on the streets. The beggars and street children
are common on Kampala Road, the Constitution Square, the
traffic lights in Wandegeya and Shoprite
Super and near Sheraton Hotel. They
are mainly children aged 3-18, disabled and surprisingly able bodied adults.
There are physically handicapped beggars and those afflicted by leprosy. Others are mothers who
strategically place their children to beg as they monitor from a far. The
other group is of young boys and girls aged 10-15. These are lone rangers
commonly referred to as street children and to compliment begging, they
engage in petty theft. Who
is Luring Karimojong Children Back to Streets? The number of street children in
Kampala had reduced in the past five months but it seems they are returning. The government and KCC recently launched a campaign to take street children
and beggars off the streets in preparation for the Chogm
in Kampala in November. However, the process has not been without hurdles. But what lures the children back
to the streets? People who act as Good Samaritans
and donate money and food to the children have apparently frustrated efforts
to relocate them. Last year, KCC
promised to pass a by-law criminalalising the
giving of money or other items to street children but the law is yet to come. Jinja urges govt over street
children Muzusa was responding to complaints
raised by the business community about the street children. “They consume alcoholic substances, move
with sharp objects such as knives and threaten us but the Police and leaders
in the town are doing nothing about this problem,” said Francis Katumba, the Napier Market traders’ chairperson. Muzusa however
blamed the business community saying some encourage children to remain on the
streets by employing them. Child Restoration
Outreach (CRO) Uganda - Children's Activities SCHOOL SPONSORSHIP - CRO
believes that through formal education, street children will be able to live
an independent life, support their families and also contribute to the
development of their communities. CRO supports children in school by paying school fees and
uniforms. Parents/ Guardians are encouraged to provide books, pens and
pencils. VOCATIONAL SKILLS - The older street children who
are not able to join formal schools are attached to local artisans to train
on the job in skills of their choice for a period of one year. CRO pays the
trainer's fees and training material. Regular monitoring of the training is
done to ensure children attend the trainings. At the end of the training, the
trainees are supported with starter-up tools to enable them become productive
and independent. Hard
Life for African Street Children A missionary with the African Inland
Mission, she has most recently been working with Dwelling Places, which helps
street children, abandoned babies and high risk slum families. Many of them have HIV or have lost parents
to Aids. "Many suffer from depravity,
disease, hunger and abuse. We see newborns to teenagers and families headed
by children." Marsali has witnessed five-year-olds living alone on the
street and has even seen teenage girls who have spent their whole life on the
streets having their own babies while homeless. She has also come across numerous abandoned
babies. They have been found on the street, in dustbins, tied up in plastic
bags and found in pit latrines and swamps. FORMER STREET KIDS GRADUATE - Over 150 former street children
graduated on Friday after being rehabilitated and trained in vocational
skills by Friends of Children Association, a charity. “As a way of empowering
these youths economically and making them self reliant, we trained them in
motorcycle mechanics, motor mechanics, hairdressing, tailoring, carpentry,
and welding for a period of one year,” said Namara Sabakaki, the charity’s programme
manager, at the mayor’s gardens. The children were mainly picked from the
slums of Katwe, Kisenyi, Kasubi in Kampala and Ggulu ward in Mukono district.
She thanked the other partners like Solidarity Foundation and the World Food programme. Sh2.16b
sought for child protection The district child protection
coordinator, Joseph Kilama, urged charities to
address the problem of street children.
“We never had street kids before but today, they are over 60. Some of
them have guns, while others have cocaine.” Bringing a
rare smile to sick, homeless kids The group traveled around the
country, visiting orphanages, setting up one-day medical clinics and working
with the children who fend for themselves in the slums of the capital city,
Kampala. The first orphanage they visited
was the Sanyus baby home. "The babies brought there were found
on the road, or in latrine pits or outside the hospital," Pokrywa said. Conditions were not what one would expect
in the United States. "There were about 50 babies
and toddlers. The floors were filthy. None of the children had shoes and most
did not have diapers," she said. The 12 volunteers spent the day taking
care of the children - holding them, feeding them, bathing
them. "They seemed starved for a human touch. They just clung to
us," Pokrywa said. Ridding
Kampala City of Karimojong Street Children An estimated 700 Karimojong, primarily women and children, who had been
begging on the city streets of Kampala have now been returned to Moroto. A group of 395 travelled
on February 14 and the rest travelled
Wednesday. There is no easy answer to
explain how and why these people ended in Kampala. Clearly the region’s entrenched problems -
food insecurity, a culture of violence and a harsh climate - made leaving the
least bad option. Summit
displaces Uganda street children STREET LIFE - One of them is 10-year-old Nabale Amuye. She came to Kampala with her aunt three
months ago to make some money. But her
aunt left her there. "I ate
leftovers from the market like the potatoes that fell down and nobody noticed. And I lived in a house with eight other
people," she says. Following a public outcry, the
Police in Soroti have rounded up over 20 street
children. The district Police commander, Sam Musisi,
said they were found on verandas and corridors where the majority of them
sleep. “The public has been accusing
them of gang raping women, snatching phones and beating people at night.” Should
prostitution be legalised? `50,000/- For a lover` read posters that are found almost all over Kampala city
in Uganda. The posters are allegedly put by prostitutes at night with the
help of street children in their attempts to get `customers`. NGO
protests K’jong street kids relocation Recently, about 1,000 karimojong children and women were forcefully taken to Kampiringisa Remand Home in Mpigi
district to await transportation back to Karamoja. In a statement, the charity said
the Government should get the consent of the children before forcing them off
the streets. “We note with great
concern how the rights of these children are seriously compromised in the present
actions taken by the authorities.” It
said the relocation should be done in consultation and with the participation
of the children involved. [EXCERPT FROM AN ESSAY BY MASUMBA DAVID] The war between the LRA and the
Ugandan government ended in 2006, yet many Ugandans still live homeless,
naked, and traumatized by the war. Many beggars on the streets of Kampala are
from northern Uganda with little hope of survival on the harsh, polluted
streets, where no one pays any attention to them. Children run up to you in
the street and say "Uncle, mpako ku sente" ("Uncle,
give me some money"). The money they get is taken by the stronger ones,
and the younger ones are turned into stone-hearted children with no love or
human feelings. When a fight breaks out among these homeless, displaced
people, it is savage. Many have survived from rubbish or by fellow friends in
the streets of Kampala. The street children are not the only people who have
been displaced by the war in the north of Uganda. Hawkers and old women who
sleep and sit on the streets selling sweets to passersby are from the north
of Uganda with nowhere to go and no one to turn to. David Kyambadde,
a Ugandan, and his wife, Aimee, an American, took fifty street children from
Kampala, Uganda, into their home and made a family. Calling them Home Again,
Uganda, because they once had homes, lost them, and now they had a home
again, the boys were rehabilitated and rejoined society as members of a
family, not “street” or “orphaned” children privileged to be pitied. Woman
MP starts children’s project THE Government is concerned by the
increasing number of street children in Kampala. Gender minister Syda
Bbumba on Thursday said: “It is a growing concern
for the Government that there has been an astonishing influx of street
children and families on the streets of Kampala.” Street
Children Turn to Sex Workers THE majority of street children in
Masaka have turned into prostitutes and
homosexuals. The Manager of Buddukiro Children’s
Agency, Kassim Wamono
revealed during a press conference at the offices of South Buganda Journalists Association in Masaka
on Nov 20. "Street children come from poor families and so they resort
to sex trade in towns for survival," he said. WFP denies 'encouraging' street children in Uganda The legislators were also unhappy that
the street children if not cleared off the streets would create a negative
image of Uganda prior and during the Commonwealth Heads of State Meet to be
hosted by Kampala in November next year. “WFP
help us and desist from feeding those street children, CHOGM
is on the way. We are trying to get them off the streets. But if you decide
to feed them, do you think those kids will get off the streets?” MP Edward Bwerere Kasole wondered. It
Could Be Illegal to Donate to Street Kids Kampala City Council will soon
pass a bylaw making it a criminal offence to give money and other items to
street children, the city probation officer, Dan Mujjukizi,
has said. Mujjukizi
said, while the Children’s Act 2000 makes it illegal for children to be on
the streets, the people who donate money and food to them were making efforts
to relocate the children difficult. Parents
blamed for street kids Lugazi Diocese Bishop Mathias Sekamanya has blamed street and orphaned children on
parents. He said some parents spent
more time in bars than with their children.
Sekamanya criticised
parents who dressed indecently, saying they were not exemplary. Information
about Street Children - Uganda [DOC] 51% of the population is under 18;
number of street children is estimated at 10,000; underlying causes of children’s
problems in Childhoods in Uganda Being Lived in the Street Aposi Lakwemwe
considers himself one of the poorest people in one of the poorest
countries. All he owns is hanging on
his lanky frame, a torn T-shirt and a too-small pair of jeans. Plus there is
his slab of cardboard, which is the only thing that separates his body at
night from the cold pavement.
''Nobody's poorer than me,'' he says with a hazy look in his eyes, the
result of hours of sniffing aviation fuel. ''How can they be? I don't have
anything. I don't have a mother. I don't have a home. I don't have
anything.'' But Aposi,
16, has plenty of competition when it comes to desperation, especially among
the thousands of street children who haunt the business district here, as
others do in many African capitals, begging and robbing their way from one
day to the next. People think that it is poverty
and AIDS that causes Ugandan children to leave home, but the problem goes
beyond that. I have gone to rich
families and have found out that they have lost kids to the streets, and seen
that those children who have remained at home are miserable. What they seek is *Self-esteem, *Meaningful
time and conversation with someone they can trust and model, *Love, *A sense
of belonging, *A sense of importance, *A sense of family. They need all the things that they were
deprived of at home. A New Dawn, a New
Beginning in Uganda [PDF] Recruiting young people directly
from the street, Victoria and her team quickly established the ground rules:
a “Scout” contract between the kids and the team. With a letter of Scout
membership, these kids were no longer harassed by the authorities when they
were going about their daily business. With the influence of the Scouts
Association, each kid has free health referral through the government health
system. And with the sheer logistics of daily life for a “family” of 20
children and one adult, the importance of the shared responsibility using the
Scout method became clear to all. There were a couple of drop-outs early on,
but the majority have stayed. And the 20 or so kids
working on the farm now own and sell what they produce, and live and work
under their own management team. WHAT IS RYDA [RTF] STREET
CHILDREN - RYDA
operates one of one of the largest street children skills training in Vocational
Training Of Orphans And Street Children The orphans attend vocational
training workshops where funds have been spent on tools and equipment,
technical assistance, training activities and educational materials. This
means that they can gain the skills necessary to get decent paid work and
provide for themselves. With the
incentive of receiving nourishing food, regular attendance by the children is
secured. AIMS
& OBJECTIVES -
The goal of the project is that the street children will be able to exercise
their rights to sexual and reproductive health within an environment where
information and services are freely accessible and their rights are respected
by the community and its members. This is based on the premise that street
children with increased knowledge, skill and confidence are able to make
their own informed choices for a healthier future. The project adopts a
variety of strategies including advocacy, capacity building and peer
education to achieve this goal. Harnessing
talent: Ugandan street youth using drama to fight AIDS Through street and community
outreach, HIV prevention clubs and training workshops, an innovative project
called the Baabas takes HIV prevention messages to street children Bethesda International exists to
restore and uphold hope and a future to the most vulnerable children by
providing physical, social and spiritual needs. Due to their marginalization, the most
vulnerable children, have lost all hope.
THE LIFE
OF A STREET CHILD -
To survive, each child in the gang had to work very hard. Some provided sex
to adults for food or a pittance; others carried heavy loads, sold drugs, or
participated in organized crime. A Future for
Street Children in Uganda? AKOLUMOGEN'S
STORY - 15 year old
Akolumogen miserably recalls his first days on the streets: "Food was getting scarce each day that
we began. Left alone after my parents' death, I had to fend for my
well-being. All the heads of cattle that my old Papa had left me had dropped
off one by one and now there was nothing to feed on. This prompted me to move to Caring For Orphans And Street-Children
In Uganda All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC §
107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use |
Human Trafficking in [Uganda] [other countries]Street Children in [Uganda Child Prostitution in [Uganda] [other countries]