Children participating in fighting child sacrifice

By Charlotte Muhwezi 

As I drove to Ngogwe Sub County in Buikwe district, I came across several children going to school in groups of about four. What I realized however is that each one of them run away and looked out for each other when I drove closer. My efforts of being friendly to the children fell on unfertile ground as I could see a sense of fear and unrest in their eyes.

When I asked the overall Child Protection Chairperson  Charles Okuta in the area why the children didn’t seem to trust me, he told me that it was due to the constant child sacrifice in the area. Policies had been put up by the help of World Vision and partners to train children on various child protection committees on how to protect themselves from child sacrifice among which was running away from strangers, reporting a missing child to the local counsels, beating the drum in a rythmatic manner that signifies that a child has been kidnapped, making an announcement on the community microphones among many others.

In Lugasa Parents Primary school, is a child protection committee which was formed last year(2014). It has about 30 members who are from grade 3 to grade 7. The members on the group were chosen based on their confidence, past experience from child sacrifice, family backgrounds and ability to express themselves.

This committee was formed due to the various forms of child sacrifice that were happening in the community and equipping the children with the knowledge would be the best option because they would then be in a better position to talk to their peers. This committee meets every Monday and its led by the Child protection patron Ivan Seruwooza who talks to the children on what to do as members of this committee.

Eric Oduba is a pupil of grade 7 and also the chairperson on the children’s committee. He says that he has told children not to trust strangers whenever they are called, not to walk alone in deserted areas, not to get gifts from strangers and not to agree with their parents whenever they are sent to buy groceries in the night. Eric passes on this information during school assemblies and parents meetings. Due to this education, the children in the committee have been able to protect each other.

Prossy Batamuliza is in grade 7 and part of the committee too. Due to the knowledge she got form the committee meetings, she was able to help find a child that went missing during the night.” I was on holiday and visiting my grandmother when a child went missing at night. The parents searched but could not find their child and decided to wait until morning. I advised them to beat the drum in a rythmatic way that signifies that a child has gone missing so the community should participate in the search. Luckily, my grandmother had a drum so I started beating the drum in a way we were taught. When the community members heard, they all moved out of their homes and started the search. Fortunately, the child was got after about two hours of intensive searching. He was still alive but was tired up on a tree. If I hadn’t beaten the drum, the child would probably have been killed by morning’ says Prossy.

A few years ago, cases of child sacrifice in Ngogwe were topping the News Paper headlines in Uganda. One child was sacrificed every week according to the” Child sacrifice and mutilation in Uganda 2013”. Due to the intervention of World Vision, government and partners, these cases have reduced drastically. With children participating in the fight, child sacrifice cases will be history. This is partly because children can easily trust their peers than elders.