Friday 21 June 2013

WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A CHILD IN AFRICA



Pupils arriving at Boma ground after a procession around Bundibugyo Town

It took approximately four hours for a team of RWECO CU, the staff and pupils of Rukoki Model School to drive from Kasese via Fort portal to Bundibugyo. It was a very tough journey, mostly for the young ones but it was a worthy journey due to the learning environment that was at BOMA Grounds, Bundibugyo. It was the day of African child and the western regional celebrations were in Bundibugyo District at Boma grounds. The theme of the day was eliminating harmful social and cultural practices affecting children; Our collective responsibility. So many children put up so interesting performances ranging from Music to drama. Their performances were all advocating sounds of the little children seeking for the redress in the way the community, teachers and also back to the households treat them.
Day one started as different teams arrived from different places. After most of the teams had arrived, they made a community outreach and decided to clean up some wards thereafter made a procession around town to alert the people on the days celebrations. 

Pupils cleaning the pediatric ward - Bundibugyo hospital 15th June 2013



Day two, 16th June, 2013 started with a procession around Bundibugyo town and back to Boma grounds where speeches and performances were held. There was a parliamentary session held by pupils and in this presentation, they talked about child labor and its consequences on the growth of these children affected. They also talked about early marriages and put up good recommendations on how to overcome this device in relation to their causes and effects on the children and these include supporting orphans in terms of education, encourage family planning so that to avoid unwanted pregnancies that could be a burden to the parents and that government should cooperate with other stakeholders to fight against child neglect that result in to child labor and that corporal punishments should be abolished to encourage children keep at school.

A pupil's parliamentary session 16th June 2013



Rukoki Model Primary from Kasese District who put up a touching presentation. This was led by three impaired children who used sign language to communicate their massage to the audience. The other pupil who was disabled with no arms showed the world that disability is not inability.
 A disabled pupil with no hands from Rukoki model showing his skills in knitting 16th June 2013

 

God Bless us all
Gilbert Masereka

2 comments:

  1. We need to support the efforts of those children who have come out to speak about disability as they aspire their fellow children to join school and complete. The day of the African child was however not well covered by the media because somebody talked about the fathers day of which stories of children were obstructed

    Kudos to RWECO and other CSOs in the Rwenzori Region who came out boldly as a voice of the voiceless.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Day of the African Child creates memorable moments of harassment, discrimination due the Apartheid policy among African children and the entire black race by the whites commonly known as colonialists before attaining independence.This Day of the African Child is a memorable time explaining who an African child is now.This situation shows that there is a void in every child which can only be filled by an emotionally engaged father.Universally among African children specifically girls and women is a longing feeling for the father`s affirmation and affection. Girls who suffer from father deprivation grow up feeling very unsure about their femininity and self -worth and are constantly looking for confirmation/affirmation by attracting attention and praise.They try to fill the father gap in shoddy ways such as becoming pregnant as they turn to men for hug they never had from dad,or turn to uncouth practices like lesbianism I call upon all Africans to say NO to harmful Social and Cultural practices affecting children . Parents,CSOs,NGOs and government should take responsibility and join forces to promote decent work for all:Better together. Medrace.

    ReplyDelete