Knowledge of children’s rights tool to ending child abuse

It is said that children are the future leaders of any country. It is further said that when the country educates and empowers them with knowledge, it ceates a positive ripple effect across the world.

However, many children in Malawi continue to encounter different challenges as their rights continue to be trampled knowingly or unknowingly by people who are supposed to protect.

Concerned with rampant cases of child rights violations in the country, National Initiative for Civic Education (Nice ) Trust, with financial support from the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), stormed 10 districts in Malawi with legal literacy sessions.

These sessions targeted children in the morning as primary stakeholders and community leaders in the afternoon as secondary stakeholders.

Nice Blantyre district civic education expert Ngosi Maulidi indicated the importance of education sessions.

She said: ‘‘We thought of engaging children on their rights after noticing the knowledge gap. As Nice, we believe that people take advantage of children’s ignorance on their rights to exploit them. And even in an instance where their rights are violated, they don’t notice.

“Worse still, they don’t know where to report the vices.’’

A survey conducted by Violence Against Children and Young People shows that 60 percent of Malawians were violated during their childhood. According to the report, one out of every five girls suffers sexual abuse before the age of 18.2 years and two out of three boys suffer physical abuse before the age of 18 years. Further to this, most of these violations of children’s rights take place in their homes.

The survey further reveals that those who suffer abuse in their childhood develop long-term behaviour and health consequences which include higher rates of mental distress, great prevalence of smoking and alcohol abuse.

‘‘We included parents in our campaigns because they are the ones who stay with the children. Besides, reports show that some of the abuses happen on the watch of parents. In some instances, perpetrators are the parents themselves,’’ adds Maulidi.

Upon completion of the two-week campaign in Blantyre Rural, Nice equipped 20 schools in Blantyre Rural with books on human rights and different forms of abuses so that people continue to be updated and reminded to protect children.

Apart from schools, Nice also stocked its resources centres with books on human rights, democracy and governance in senior chiefs Kapeni and Kuntaja and traditional authorities Makata and Machinjiri.

Maulidi, however, said Nice is considering ways to reach out to as many children and communities as possible in the other phases to come in order to ensure that the gaps on children’s rights are sealed.

Blantyre district social welfare and child protection officer Stephano Joseph revealed that the district recorded 471 defilement cases since the beginning of this year.

He says he hopes that with the coming in of Nice,  parents now know their duty in the fight against children’s rights violation while children know their rights.

“Knowledge is power. We hope to see children demanding their rights and report cases to relevant authorities. Most importantly,  the fact that community leaders have been part of these legal literacy sessions, we expect to see a significant reduction in cases of child abuse in the district,” says Joseph.

Blantyre Rural comprises 168 public primary schools with 141 773 pupils out of which, 69 841 are boys and 71 932 are girls representing 49.26 percent and 50.74 percent respectively.

Blantyre rural chief education officer Rebecca Misiri says she is delighted with the initiative which she describes as an eye opener to both children and community leaders.

She said: “We are happy with the development. We are now assured that our children are able to know where to report to when abused. Most importantly, the inclusion of parents in this campaign is a welcome move as parents are the ones who stay close to our children.’’

Unicef partnered with Malawi Law Commission to sensitise children and communities to children’s rights and to encourage them to report any cases of abuse to ensure a safe environment for children.

Malawi Law Commission representative Sophie Gomani said: “Unicef partnered with us under Save Schools programme in 2019 after noticing rampant abuse of children’s rights in the country. We were mandated to review and make recommendations in relation to protection of children’s rights.

‘‘We chose Nice as implementers of the initiative because they have established structures on the ground.’’

She also said she is optimistic that the initiative has helped children not only to know their rights but their responsibilities as well.

Gomani further said the inclusion of community members in the campaigns has assisted in empowering community leaders to help in the fight against the vice, as this requires concerted effort.

Vanessa Kaliati, a Standard Seven learner at Ntenjera Primary School in Lunzu, said the two-week sessions have helped her to know children’s rights and where to report whenever they suffer abuse.

“We thank Nice for the project. With the human rights awareness campaigns, we now know our entitlements. Above all, we are able to know where to report incidences of abuses so that perpetrators face the law.

“Equally important is that we have been taught about responsibilities. This will go a long way in making sure that we don’t abuse the knowledge we have acquired on our rights,’’ she says.

Nice works with area civic education coordinators  at ward level on voluntary basis. Unicef injected about K3.8 million for the campaign in Blantyre Rural that ran from 19 to 29 July this year.