Child Restoration Outreach Urges Media to Heighten Awareness on Issues of Children Living in Street Situations

Child Restoration Outreach (CRO), a civil society Organisation dedicated to address the problem of street children in Uganda has urged the Media to provide more space and time to create awareness on issues of children living in street situations so that they can reconcile with their families.

In a meeting held in Masaka city between Media managers and owners of community loudspeakers, CRO officials said it is important for the media to routinely provide information about street children and create awareness on how we can have a reduced number of children living in such situations.

Children and young people get on the streets due to extreme poverty, family breakdown, parental death & illness, domestic violence, famine, landslides and physical or sexual abuse. 

But, on the street, they’re exposed to criminal activities like pick-pocketing, drug abuse, robbery, alcohol abuse, commercial sex, violence and homo sexuality, which puts their lives in danger and are forced to perform tasks beyond their ages and capabilities for survival.

Mr. Paul Nabitiri, the CRO Country Director said the statistical results about street children obtained last year were a beat shocking that’s why they rallied media persons and proprietors of Community radios (bizindaalo) to sensitise communities to take a keen eye about the factors causing children to run on the streets.

According to the survey carried out by CRO in 2023, it was revealed that most of the street children are boys making 73.3% and 27.7% girls.

From these numbers, 48% were coming from families in Buganda region, 34% from Karamoja, 33% from Lango followed by Bagisu and Basoga.

 The average age group of street children between 10-14 years was 60%, 15-17 years was 32% and 5-9years was 8%. 51% of these children use these streets as their homes for more than one year and 49% are part timing street children.

It is surprising also that 60% of street children in Uganda have both parents, 28% have single parents and total orphans are 12%.

“We have tried to talk to these street children but we have discovered that the major problems sending them to the streets is domestic violence, separation of families, child neglect, lack of food, failure to go school and some of them are sent by their parents to sale items where they find friends that attract them to stay on the streets that’s why we have decided to make a CSO-Media partnership to inform the society about the dangers of child neglect and other factors forcing children to run on to the streets.” Nabitiri said.

Nabitiri said each region has its own forces but in Masaka, most of the street children are attracted by the grasshopper seasons, in Jinja it’s the big number of tourists that donate to them items prompts them to stay, while in Mbale statistics reveal that it’s the city with the biggest number of street children totaling to over 4000.

“Parents have concentrated on making money and neglecting their parental responsibilities but we urge them to take time to do good parenting to avoid the high crime rates in Uganda and reduce the number of street children,” he added.

Ms. Nkolenta Adah Ojul, the CRO Masaka Office Director said they decided to engage media stakeholders because there is a lot the general public is not aware about, particularly the reasons why children go to the streets, the challenge they face and what they can do to stop the influx of children running from home to the streets.

“The issue of street children is gradually growing in our country and it is unnoticed by most people. Therefore we need the media to publicize it and sensitize parents on the consequences of child neglect as one of the indicators causing the problem. Many of them are abused, molested, beaten and they end up missing their future and leaders of tomorrow,” Ms. Nkolenta said,

“We have also realised that most of their parents ran to Saudi Arabia and other Arabic countries to seek for Jobs thus ending up leaving their children with very old grandparents who cannot manage looking after them which prompts them to run to the streets. The exorbitant school fees charged by schools have also caused children to drop out. We therefore want to work with the media to sensitize all the stakeholders on how to mitigate this problem.” Ms Adah added.

Living on the streets typically avails no access to education, skills-training, health care, nutrition and parental guidance. All of this can impair brain development, negatively impacting long-term physical and mental well-being.

Child Restoration Outreach is one of the Civil Society Organizations dedicated to addressing the problem of street children and its effects on the society since 1992, by reconciling them with their families; and empowering them to become responsible and fruitful citizens principally through long-term customized interventions that make them productive and responsible.

In Uganda, statistics indicate that about 15,000 children between the ages of 7-17 years are living on the streets of Mbale, Masaka, Lira and Jinja without care, parental guidance, shelter, and other basic needs of life.

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