Nyaka, North Kigezi Diocese Partner to Fight Child Sexual Abuse

Rukungiri: Nyaka AIDS Orphans Project has partnered with North Kigezi Diocese to fight Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV), in Rukungiri District.

The meeting held on September 25, at New Palm Hotel in Rukungiri Municipality was attended by officials from Nyaka, clergy from North Kigezi Diocese, police representatives, Child Development Centre officials, and district officials, including probation officers.

Nyaka is a grassroots non-governmental organisation based in rural southwestern Uganda that provides free education, healthcare and community support to orphaned and vulnerable children and their grandmothers.

Nyaka SGBV Coordinator Bylon Natuha said the workshop was mainly organised for religious leaders in North Kigezi Diocese to find ways of preventing and responding to sexual and gender-based violence in the diocese and Rukungiri District.

Natuha said Nyaka alone has recorded 105 defilement cases in the last four months, adding that many cases may go unreported because victims and their families choose to remain silent.

He said partnering with religious leaders will help Nyaka educate communities and encourage people to report cases of child sexual abuse.

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The North Kigezi Diocesan Secretary, Rev. Muntrive Nshabaruhanga, said some parents have neglected their children, forcing them to grow up without proper parental care.

Nshabaruhanga said in some families, children are left to head households when mothers travel abroad while fathers turn to alcohol abuse.

He added that some parents are also too busy with work and have little time for their children, forcing them to send them to boarding schools and house maids, where some children end up being exploited.

Rev. Nshabaruhanga urged church leaders to use their platforms to educate parents and children about child protection.

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The former Mayor of Kebisoni Town Council and current North Kigezi Diocesan Household and Community Transformation Coordinator, Nathan Alex Mugabe, said the church has done a lot to support children through education, healthcare, welfare and protection programmes.

Mugabe said North Kigezi Diocese currently has 12 Child Development Centre branches.

He urged the church and organisations working with children to strengthen child protection policies, improve recruitment procedures for people working with children, and provide regular training on child protection and reporting of abuse cases.

He also asked Nyaka to consider involving chapel heads and school heads in similar workshops so that they can play a greater role in protecting children.

AIP Detective Henry Busingye, the officer in charge of records at Rukungiri Central Police Station, said some leaders interfere with child abuse cases by demanding that police consult them before taking action.

He also said some people report cases to police but later fail to return when they are required to participate in the ongoing investigations and court processes.

The Rukungiri District Senior Probation Officer, Jennifer Tumusiimire, said more than 1,800 teenage pregnancy cases are reported through DHO’s office every financial year.

Tumusiimire said many of the cases are reported from Bwambara, Nyakagyeme, Nyakishenyi, Bugangari and Nyarushanje sub-counties, with most involving girls below the age of 17.

Tumusiimire urged church leaders to use their platforms to educate the public about child protection, saying they are trusted and listened to by many people in the community.

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The North Kigezi Diocesan Education Coordinator, Rev. Evas Arinaitwe, said many teenage pregnancy cases occur during school holidays.

She urged parents to take greater responsibility for their children and protect them from peer groups and other situations that may expose them to sexual abuse.

The Dean of Emmanuel Cathedral Kinyasano, the Very Rev. Dickens Baguma, and Rev. Canon George Bazahuza said many parents act as authority figures to their children but fail to become their friends. They said this can make children fear sharing their problems with their parents.

The clergy urged parents to regularly engage their children, sit with them and openly discuss issues affecting their lives.

Nyaka NGO Programmes Officer Arnold Sukukuru and Head of Field, Abubakor Sempa, also attended the engagement.

The workshop ended with the appointment of a 16-member committee of Nyaka coordinators drawn from the 12 archdeaconries of North Kigezi Diocese.

The committee will spearhead and coordinate community activities aimed at spreading messages against sexual and gender-based violence and promoting the protection of children across the diocese.