Working with the Army to Promote Children's Rights

 

It is the plight of children caught in the war that prompted Save the Children in Uganda to extend its helping hand to the districts of Gulu, Pader,Lira and Apac. The key mandate of Save the Children is to ensure that therights of children are protected and promoted.

 

Save the Children collaborates with the army in training soldiers, to protect the rights of the children caught up in the war. Save the children provides the logistical support for the child rights protection programme.

 

"This child protection programme came up in 2000 when there were many formerly abducted children, and the community had not been prepared to receive them," explains Charles Kashungwa, Save the Children District Manager for Lira.

 

He says the UPDF viewed the children from captivity as rebels, while the community saw them as murderers. Save the Children intervened and started a programme to sensitize both the community and the army on the need to see that children are only victims of war and their rights need to be respected.

 

Working closely with the District Local Governments and local child rights partner NGOs, Save the Children has helped change community attitudes towards formerly abducted children.

 

Adilang Learning Centre: Construction of permanent structures
will help these children access education

 

Loro Core Primary Teachers College in Loro is a lead partner in implementing the Quality Education under the Education Global Challenge programme. But that is not the only programme. Save the Children also has emergency education programmes which are undertaken in collaboration with other agencies seeking to foster the rights and welfare of children.

 

These programmes include; construction of classrooms, latrines, teachers' houses and safe water sources, as well as supplying desks for the classrooms. Over 120 classrooms have so far been constructed in selected schools within the two districts of Lira and Apac. The beneficiary schools are nominated by the education department of the district.