Responding to violence against children

MUCOBADI through USAID-LARA/RTI project in collaboration with community development officers established Village Child Case Management Committees in October/November 2018 to strengthen the Reporting Tracking Response and Referral mechanism through operationalization of the Ministry of Education and Sports RTRR guidelines in Luwero District. 89 VCCMCs were identified, formed, oriented and equipped with knowledge in response to violence against children, reporting and tracking of cases in communities.  In the month of October 2018 after the orientation of VCCMC members, there was an acute increase in cases of violence against children in schools that were reported (60 cases were reported from Kamira Sub County of which 39 resolved and 21 pending and in January 2019 there was an increase in the number of cases being resolved compared to the previous month of October 2018 where 12 cases were resolved and 3 pending and this has seen a reduction in the number of pending cases).

In response to mitigate the situation, MUCOBADI supported CCAs who conducted community awareness through journeys which informed communities about the existence of VCCMCs and their roles in case management. Surprisingly as a result VCCMC establishment, there was mass increase of cases against children being reported to authorities. A case in point is Kaddu Madinah a VCCMC chairperson/ Para social worker of Kiiso school community in Kabunyatta village, Kitenderi parish Kamira Sub County who said “Before this committee was established we would pursue cases on individual basis which in turn was so challenging as the community would see me as a problem to them and perpetuators would intimidate me for reporting cases to authorities, but with the establishment of the VCCMC it has been collective efforts in handling cases against children because the committee consist of community members who jointly handle and manage cases as a team as opposed to individuals.” This improvement has been attributed to the efforts and existence of VCCMC in communities.



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