Advocacy Day 2016

CHILDREN'S  RIGHTS VIOLATION:
Who to Blame? 

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In partnership with the Gender Monitoring Office, Advocacy Day served to highlight public concerns, recommendations, and strategies through the informative debate on this year’s theme: Who is to Blame?

​Centre Marembo was able to gather a list of recommendations to be implemented by government officials and the wider community in Rwanda.

Recommendations
A few of the recommendations presented include:
  1. Government should create and subsidize apprenticeship programs and schooling for older children with the purpose of training for future employment.
  2. Adequate checks should be done on parents/foster parents and distant relatives for alcohol/drug abuse or previous history of physical/sexual abuse of children or women. There should be adequate checks for proper accommodation and access to education. Thorough arrangements should be made to prepare families for reintegration and all stakeholders need to fully participate to eliminate violation and child abuse. Biweekly or bimonthly government checks should be continued at least one year after reintegrating children.
  3. Implement community outreach campaigns to make children on the street aware of Centre Marembo and sensitization campaigns on parenthood for the communities, fathers and male guardians, church members, and local leaders. The campaign could include testimonies from former street children whose lives have been changed.
  4. Provide psychosocial support to parents, law enforcement against perpetrators, and legal protection for children. The government should place psychologists and social workers in each district. Two people per village (friends of the family) should be trained to help intervene and prevent further violation & abuses against children’s rights.
  5. Implement community outreach campaigns to make children on the street aware of Centre Marembo and sensitization campaigns on parenthood for the communities, fathers and male guardians, church members, and local leaders. The campaign could include testimonies from former street children whose lives have been changed.
  6. Provide psycho-social support to parents, law enforcement against perpetrators, and legal protection for children. The government should place psychologists and social workers in each district. Two people per village (friends of the family) should be trained to help intervene and prevent further violation & abuses against children’s rights.
  7. The National Children’s Commission can make flyers containing rules or regulations that detail children’s rights and distribute this information to students in P1 and P2 so that they can be aware of their rights.
  8. Most importantly, parents must understand and look out for children’s rights violations and the needs of children.
  9. We need to work hand in hand with the media to allow successfully rehabilitated children give out their testimonies to current street children in order to give them hope and create an optimistic environment towards rehabilitation.
  10. Journalists have the ability and should take the opportunity to act as the voice for children living on the street.
  11. Members of the community can call 116 to report a child on the street.
  12. Children living on the street should not be called ‘street kids,’ but rather we should refer to them as children who have been neglected. This is due to the fact that the term ‘street kids’ is derogatory and places the blame on the child rather than on the adults who have the responsibility of caring for these children. 
A number of school children in attendance contributed thought-provoking comments during the debate and gave a preview of the opinions of the leaders of tomorrow.
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Advocacy Day was an incredibly informative event and Centre Marembo looks forward to implementing these recommendations in the upcoming year. 
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