Dear reader wherever you are, I would like to take this opportunity to tell you about children’s life in refugee camps.
There are still children who are not capacitated yet to have self esteem to talk about issues which concern them, to ensure the community and the world provide both moral and material support and help to solve their problems which they are facing. I would love to see agencies/organizations which deal with children protection ensures that seminars and campaigns are conducted in order that children are capacitated to be able to express their problems and to be heard. On our part, children who are involved in the fight for children’s rights through radio programme, children parliamentary sessions and Child Voice Out campaigns, will ensure we educate the community (refugee community) and our fellow children who are not reached by agencies. This will ensure the community is changed.
There is still another problem whereby parents are deeply indulged in harmful traditional practices which jeopardize children’s rights. These include girl children being compensated to a deceased person, parents force their female children to marry at early age. These kinds of parents are in front line to deprive kids’ rights including the right to education. I would like to call upon the community to change and forget old traditions and customs which abuse children’s rights. Apart from this situation, I will continue to fight for the children’s rights and ensure children and the community are aware of children rights through radio programme.
I am still maintaining that there are still some children who are involved in various worst forms of labour such as to look after goats, shop keeping, working in video show rooms as video keepers in exchange with money. Here I suggest that agencies and the community in general to ensure they save children from such worst forms of child. On my part, in collaboration with other agencies which deals with advocacy of children’s protection, I will ensure that the community is aware of their responsibilities towards children’s rights and their entire life.
In certain refugee camps there are still children who are denied their right to education. This situation impels children to randomly roam in village streets, as a result most of them end up with resorting to involve into substance abuse, theft and the like. I would love to see children’s right to education is honoured and that children are going to school in both, refugee camps and in communities outside the camps and in the world in general. Follow ups are made through our children parliament and the radio programme (children for children) and the child voice out initiative to find out as to why some children are not schooling.
In the refugee camps there are still children who are dying because of malaria. However, most of these deaths are caused by ignorance of parents on how to protect their children from this disease and extremely poverty in most of families in which children live. Children advocacy organizations in collaboration with radio programmes should strengthen efforts in provision of trainings on how to prevent children from malaria and other dangerous diseases.
There are still children living in extreme hardships such as lack of food, clothing, and beddings. Children lack food because their parents/caretakers sell the food provided by WFP on their own satisfaction and not for the benefit of the entire family. In this situation, I call upon organizations which are providing humanitarian services to refugees to take this issue of food as a serious problem to the health development of a child and to the entire life of the child. I and my fellow children will ensure parents/caretakers are educated on proper parenting so that they may refrain from this practice.
Lastly may I end up by calling upon your collaboration to ensure we eliminate children abuse and denial of their rights. I would love to see the world that has love, which has no violence and abuse to children.
Baruani E. Ndume
Nyarugusu Refugee Camp, Tanzania
