By Paul Jimbo
June 16th marks the ‘Day of the African Child’, which has been celebrated every year since 1991. It was first initiated by the Organization of African Unity to commemorate the 1976 march in Soweto, South Africa, when thousands of African school children took to the streets to protest about the inferior quality of their education and to demand their right to be taught in their own language.
In South Sudan, coordinated by the United Nation’s Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in collaboration with the Ministry of Gender, Social Welfare and Religious Affairs, alongside several other stakeholders in the child protection sector, including the United Nation’s Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), the theme of this year’s ‘Day of the African Child’ is ‘All Together for Urgent Action in Favour of Street Children’, in order to spotlight the need to understand and address the issue.
The problem of street children in Southern Sudan can easily be attributed to the typical challenges that most post conflict countries have to contend with as they dream of embracing peace and normalcy. In Southern Sudan, the issue of street children is real and devastating, with possible indicators that it could be heading for uncontrollable levels.
“The situation is very bad as we witness new arrivals on streets on a daily basis; they arrive in their droves and the challenge is where do we take them and what do we do with them?”, asks Ms Regina Osa Lulo, the Director General of Gender and Child Welfare at the Government of South Sudan’s Ministry of Gender, Social Welfare and Religious Affairs.
According to Regina, a number of factors contribute to the increasing number of street children in Southern Sudan. “Some were left as orphans after their parents were killed during the war, some are victims of domestic violence, probably constant mistreatment at home, and some have run away from their families to look for food because of poverty. I mean, the economy is not balanced and so we have so many parents who are old, poor and have to use their children to feed them”, Regina stated.
She said that child labour in Southern Sudan was rife in urban centres and took many different forms including shoe polishing, collection and resale of empty plastic water bottles, washing cars, hawking, and touting on public service vehicles.
She said that some of the children were on the streets because of lack of care and love from their parents. “It is not that all the children you see on the streets are orphans, no, some of them are there because of neglect and lack of parental care. At some point even some parents deliberately send their children to beg and get something for their survival and this is all because of poverty”, Regina intimated.
The Director General, who spoke to ‘The People’s Voice’ in her office in Kololo-Juba, made the remarks while responding to a raft of issues on street children featured in previous editions of ‘The People’s Voice.’
She said that some people were still stuck with the old mentality of giving birth to many children yet they had little capacity to sustain them. “When someone gives birth to a child, they should understand that this comes with responsibility which includes upbringing, education, feeding and even mentoring. There are some cattle traders who engage children in the trade only to leave them behind in towns. This is so common amongst cattle traders from Eastern and Central Equatoria and Jonglei states”, she revealed.
The government, she stated, had come up with the Child Act which was already in circulation and would soon embark on the next phase of a children’s rights protection campaign .This would involve sensitization of villagers and members of the society at large on child rights.
“We will also be training trainers and child welfare officers who will be posted across the states, counties and even payams, where they will be able to gather information on child survival, and they will also be able to prosecute all those bent on violating children’s rights. The law is very clear on this, we will not relent in our resolve to protect these children from further abuses”, Regina vowed.
The sensitization process, she clarified, would further involve explanation of the role of parents in society and what constitutes violation of children’s rights. Her ministry, she added, had also embarked on a master plan aimed at ridding the streets of children very soon.
“Once we carry out the survey which will include mapping and understanding each child’s family background, we will come up with a transit centre where they will be temporarily held as we track down their guardians and relatives, as we embark on a reintegration, reconciliation and reunification mission which must be out of goodwill from both the child and would be foster parents or hosts”, she stated. This exercise, Ms Regina explained, would be done in collaboration with the Ministry of Health to further secure relevant child growth and development data.