Stakeholders call for more efforts to fight child violence

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INNOCENT-THE BLOGGER-BOY

International Day of the African Child

 The stakeholders and organisations that fight for the rights of children have appealed for more awareness campaigns to families and communities to shun from early marriages practices and putting more efforts to reduce violence against them.

 

Tanzania yesterday joined the rest of the African countries to commemorate International Day of the African Child.

 

Speaking during the commemoration  in Dar es Salaam yesterday, Community Development Officer for Mambwepande Urban Ward, Valeria Mosha, said that some of the parents seem to be very busy with their activities and forget to take care of their children and make follow ups on how they were doing.

 

This year’s commemoration  was held under the theme: “25 Years after the Adoption of the African Children’s Charter: Accelerating our Collective Efforts to End Child Marriages in Africa.”

 

“What will you gain if you get masked under 'we need money' theory and your children are affected psychologically with something which you could have prevented,” said Mosha.

 

Mosha said that parents remained the primary educators for morals and ethics, largely supported by religious institutions, but schooling opens up an entire world of learning that did not necessarily reflect the knowledge or career path of parents.

 

World Vision Tanzania Project Facilitator, Arthur Mngema, said that some parents have been collaborating with those who have impregnated their children and once approached by authorities they tend not to cooperate.

 

"We have experienced this in our Dar es Salaam urban project in Mabwepande, there are three cases which we were unable to solve as parents of those children were bribed," said Mngema.

 

Mngema said that for the past six month they received 10 cases regarding early pregnancies but of the total only six were solved and the rest were not due to parents collaborating with people who impregnated their children.

 

Speaking on behalf of other children, Salma Francis said that they had been facing various challenges in which the government should address for the sake of their future.

 

"Things like early marriages and pregnancies are influenced by many factors but parents should also be taught the importance of up bringing their children instead of focusing on money alone," she elaborated.

 

Francis said that most of the children have no access to safe and clean water in schools. 

 

She said the government should consider providing necessary service to the children for their health safety.

 

She further said that to end child marriages more leaders should be committed to end the practice.