Save the Children applauds Mwanza Children’s Parliament

Save the Children International says it is impressed by a number of successes registered in Mwanza over the past three years following the organisation’s annual support for the children’s Parliament in the district.

Save the Children deputy country director Stanley Phiri made the remarks during the official opening of this year’s Mwanza Children’s Parliament at Mwanza Secondary School last Thursday.

“Children have gained confidence and authority to hold duty-bearers accountable. In turn, this has made adults think and behave in a way that respects children,” he said.

Phiri said most children in the district have improved in the way they speak and articulate issues concerning them, adding that more of them are being selected to various secondary schools in the country.

“However, the resolutions passed in this House have been used in various ways at district and national level,” he said.

Child development and child affairs director in the Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare McNight Kalanda urged children, especially girls in the country, to take a leading role in safeguarding their rights.

“Recent study has shown that above 80 percent of decisions over child marriages in the country are made by the children themselves,” he said.

Kalanda encouraged the girls in the country to work hard in their education, saying it was the only way that their rights’ violation due to poverty can be prevented.