An official from Mbarara Ophans and other vulnerable children Mark Mwesiga has appealed to the public to renew the declining African social structures and values to ensure proper child growth.
Uganda children
This comes a day after Uganda joined the rest of Africa to celebrate the day of the African Child with the theme, ‘Planning and budgeting for the wellbeing of the child – A collective responsibility for all.’
Mwesiga says African social structures made child upbringing a collective community responsibility which was an opportunity for every African child to receive education in times of death of parents.
He appealed to social advocates and policy makers to integrate messages that aim at revamping social structures to ensure a better future for Ugandan children.
The Mbarara child activist says use of child memory books can be one of the strategies to help children re-construct their lineages and enable them trace their roots.
He says religious institutions should also help to foster brotherhood and entrench social ties among their faithful.
Many Ugandan children continue to drop out of schools despite the government efforts to start free primary and secondary education because they lack basic school necessities like uniforms, meals and stationery.