Child protection and Child Participation
Ending the Cycle: Protecting Children from Violence in Uganda
Every child has the right to be protected from violence and live free from fear, neglect, abuse and exploitation. Yet three quarters of children in Uganda experience some form of violence. Most children (68% of boys and 59% of girls) have experienced physical violence, while one in three girls and one in six boys suffer sexual abuse. The scars can last a lifetime and often result in mental health issues and psychological distress during adulthood.
Child Protection & Child Rights
We support children to know and demand their rights, and to raise their voices to people in power, we make schools and other facilities safer through creating avenues where they can speak out, we provide safe spaces for the most vulnerable children.
Youth Livelihoods & Child Poverty
We help families escape the cycle of poverty, through a range of vocational training and equipping youth with the skills they need to earn a sustainable income. We support community savings and loans groups to invest for the future and set up small businesses.
Bewell Children’s Home aka House of Hope for Children
To protect, nurture, educate, and love
Bewell Children’s Home is a “House of Hope for Children” that protects, nurtures, educates and loves abandoned and abused children in Nakaseke District.
Bewell provides a family style environment with live-in parents who love and care for the children 24/7.
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Investing in adolescent girls is crucial for alleviating poverty, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and addressing other factors that put girls at risk. We aim to empower teenage girls and create safer communities for young women from Uganda’s marginalized communities through providing safe spaces, counseling and guidance, peer support and community outreach and education.
We run Girls Support Groups that focus on discussing issues such as early and forced marriage, teenage pregnancy, health and sex education, menstrual hygiene and personal security, alongside many other issues that girls bring up in the groups. These groups provide these girls with a safe space to discuss ideas ask difficult questions and receive emotional support, advice and practical help. We also offer individual counseling for girls who have been abused, neglected or need support in any way, and we support thousands of teenage girls to access period products each month.
Our Football Project for teenage boys gives them a safe space to belong and support each other, while being mentored both on and off the pitch. Young boys, especially those who do not go to school, have very few options for engaging in positive activities. This project provides them with a safe space to go and a chance to improve their confidence, self-esteem, football skills, teamwork and discipline.
We also provide counseling for boys who have been abused, neglected or need support in any way. We recognize the importance of providing specific spaces for girls and boys separately to support each other in their peer groups and we give boys a safe space to discuss ideas, ask difficult questions, and receive emotional support, advice and practical help.
Effective child protection needs strong laws and policies in place. In Uganda there are many positive steps taken on paper – for example there is a national strategy to end violence against children in school, and child marriage, corporal punishment and other forms of abuse are illegal. But in reality these laws are rarely enforced or resourced. Many people and officials are unaware of them. Perpetrators often go unpunished. BeWell Childcare Initiative advocates for greater resourcing to implement and enforce these laws, and we are developing localised and child-friendly versions to make them more accessible to communities.
A child learns best when they feel safe and protected. Corporal punishment is illegal in Uganda but is still widely practiced – 90 percent of children say they first experienced physical violence at school from a teacher. Many teachers and parents think violence is necessary to instill discipline, but it has a hugely negative impact on learning and a child’s wellbeing.
We work with teachers and schools to promote alternative positive discipline methods built on mutual respect and participation, and set up children’s councils to come up with more effective and appropriate disciplinary measures. We also work with schools, officials and the local communities to monitor and address other forms of violence in schools, such as sexual abuse and bullying.
An effective and well-funded national child protection system is vital to ensure that we can prevent and respond to violence against children. But in Uganda the system is fragmented and weak – the referral system is poorly coordinated, services for survivors are scarce, children are not empowered to speak out and report abuse, and traditional beliefs often perpetuate certain forms of violence. Most cases are not reported, and only 32 percent of those reported result in arrests.
We advocate for greater investment in strengthening these systems at national and district level; support government-led initiatives such as the 24-hour “Sauti 116” toll-free national child helpline; and work with schools to strengthen reporting and response mechanisms.
Forty percent of girls in Uganda are married before they turn 18. One in four teenage girls over 15 have already given birth or are pregnant. This has a devastating impact on their future – it forces children out of education, traps them in a cycle of poverty, and endangers the lives of young mothers and their babies.
We work with communities to change attitudes and practices towards child marriage. We support adolescents to know their rights and the laws that protect them, and to get access to sexual and reproductive health information. We lobby officials to try and get laws enforced. We work with schools to improve girls’ access to education, as staying in school longer can reduce the chance of girls becoming pregnant or married.
Uganda hosts almost 1.4 million refugees and 60 percent are children. Most have fled brutal conflicts, and many have witnessed terrible violence or lost friends and family. We run Child-Friendly Spaces (CFS) which provide them with a safe place to play, learn and socialize with new friends, under the supervision of specialist caregivers. They can also access other services such as mental health and psychosocial support. Our teams of caseworkers identify the most vulnerable children and make sure they get the support they need – such as children who arrive alone or separated from their parents, orphans, children with disabilities or those in need of counseling.
More than 2 million children in Uganda are reportedly engaged in child labour – most in agriculture or mining. The work is physically and mentally dangerous, and forces children out of education. We are working with businesses, communities and authorities to end the practice – by holding companies to account for exploiting children, and urging companies to sign and adhere to the global Child Rights and Business Principles, which we developed with UNICEF and the UN Global Compact.