Gov’t Expresses Interest in Child Support Towards Foster care Parenting through Love without Boundaries

About 23.1 million children, accounting for over 50% of Uganda’s total population according to UBOS, are vulnerable children

Sep 25, 2024 - 21:47
Sep 25, 2024 - 22:12
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Gov’t Expresses Interest in Child Support Towards Foster care Parenting through Love without Boundaries
Ps. Min of GLSD Dr. Kibenge, Foster Parents, Partners and Ronald Ssejjuuko Country Director love without boundaries Uganda

Foster care stakeholders through government have convened to emphasize more on the importance of foster care and parenting after establishing increased child abuse in Uganda.

On Tuesday, during the first national foster care stakeholders conference in kampala, spearheaded by Love Without Boundaries, included partners, foster care homes / parents and district probation officers country wide, where the engagement focused at the importance of unity in providing safe spaces for all children in Uganda.

Mr. Ronald Ssejjuuko, Country Director, love without boundaries, indicated that they desire as an organization to partner with the government of Uganda, through the ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development to work together especially on foster care, to see that all children grow up in loving families, specifically some of those children who have been neglected, abandoned and abused. 

“one of our objective is to ensure that children grow up in loving environments and homes, this is what all Ugandans need to do regarding protection of children, even when the child doesn't belong to you. These children are on streets but they are the future leaders, entrepreneurs, doctors, inventors, to mention but a few, he said.”

Ssejjuuko, however added that, this should serve as a joint call to every person about the need for children to grow up in safer environments. Literally it is not a new concept in African culture for children to grow up with people who are not their parents and this implies the need to revive that spirit in the communities to help children who are abandoned.

About 23.1 million children, accounting for over 50% of Uganda’s total population according to UBOS, are vulnerable children. The permanent secretary Ministry for Gender Labour and Social Development, Dr. Aggrey David Kibenge presiding over the event as the Chief Guest said.

“It is, therefore, befiting that were are gathering here today to dialogue on matters concerning the care and protection of the most important cohort of our population. It is a fundamental right of every child to belong to a family. This principle underpins the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Uganda ratified in 1990, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Constitution of Uganda and the Children's Act also emphasise the importance of raising children within a family.”

In situations where children can not live with their biological parents for whatever reason, we collectively have the responsibility to provide them with a stable, safe and loving alternative family, he noted.

Despite these legal provisions, so many Ugandan children today continue to live outside family care simply because most parents have ceased playing their role, Kibenge added.

Nationally, less than a half of Ugandan children (49%) are living with both biological parents, 19% of children with both parents still alive do not live with any of their parents while 18% of children live with their mothers as their fathers don't live with them.

He also described that thousands of these children who are abandoned by their parents due to disability, hard economic circumstances and other factors, end up in residential care (also known as Children's Homes).

Currently, uganda has 9859 children living in 190 approved children's homes, many of these children living in residential care have a traceable parent or relative and represent social orphans, children who are victims of abuse, violence and exploitation, or whose living parents are unable to care for them and this has caused so many illegal children homes cropping up because they are trying to fill a gap while others see it as a lucrative business.

According to the Ps, “to counter the situation, the Ministry has instituted an Alternative Care System for Children based on the United Nations Guidelines for Alternative Care of Children. The guidelines outline principles and standards for appropriate care of children to ensure that they grow in a protective environment, free from deprivation, exploitation, danger and insecurity.”

Also Uganda's framework puts particular emphasis on kinship, foster care and local adoption as preferred arrangements to raise children that are orphaned or separated from their biological parents for different reasons.

Kibenge, however, appreciated Love without boundaries for teaming up with the ministry of gender labor and social development but reminded the audience that Uganda now has over 2 million and about 20,000 of them living and working on the streets.

Benjamin Mwibo Benjamin Mwibo is a talented, passionate and creative journalist with a commitment to high quality out put that is factual and researched. Above all Dedicated with a strong desire to identify the truth of the matter.