Every new employee must sign Child Protection Policy−Governor Mufulukye
By The Inspirer writer.
The Governor of Eastern Province Fred Mufulukye has announced that all new employed staffs will sign the Child Protection Policy as a requisite before starting their assignments.
He said this during the meeting organized by Imbuto Foundation in partnership with Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) while officially launching the Reproductive Health policy, child and mother’s health and proper implementation strategy. This meeting was held in Nyagatare District on November 20, 2019.
Since 2016 until 2018, 55,048 children countrywide were impregnated and these include 19,838 from Eastern Province’s districts, Nyagatare on top.
Governor Mufulukye said that they will approach parents and remind them their responsibilities to raise children and cater for their lives in a special way.
He added that a new strategy to talk to children at schools will be established to tell them the consequences that happen after they get tempted into sexuality while they are still young; and that they will be encouraged to use Family Planning (FP) methods.
He also requested all concerned entities to do advocacy on consequences that arise from early sexuality and spread it through media channels
Governor Mufulukye said that every new hired employee will sign child protection policy to accept that he will avoid to do child defilement.
“We found better to approach employed staff and have a consent that they will avoid committing child defilement, the work they are given must help them to improve on their development instead of creating problems. It was found that some employees invest their salaries in prostitution and tempting children into sexuality instead of venturing into development activities,” Mufulukye said.
Sam Rubagumya, the representative of Entrepreneurs in Nyagatare District said that unwanted pregnancies among teenagers is still an issue because parents do not talk with their children.
He said that parents must dedicate a moment to tell their children the truth about Sexual Reprodcutive Health in order to end this burden.
“This requires parents to talk to their children and let them free because when children fear their parents, they cannot tell them the truth or feel free to ask everything. Contrary, nothing will be achieved when parents stay busy.” Rubagumya said.
Speaking to The Inspirer, Evariste Murwanashyaka, the Programs Manager and Child Rights Focal Person at CLADHO said that following the guidelines by international human rights NGOs, no new employee should start working without having signed the child protection policy. He said that the child protection policy will serve as an important tool to ensure that children rights will be respected.
“He/she must sign that he/she will respect child rights. As CLADHO, we have been raising the issue of child defilement so far and we wished that this initiative can go beyond the local government’s institutions. We wish that this can be adopted by school institutions and all entities and that have linkage with children such as Health Centers, churches, etc.” Murwanashyaka noted.
Since 2016 when CLADHO revealed the research findings in regard with child protection, they started advocacy campaigns and all Government institutions embraced the initiative.
Elphase Karamage, the RCB official in charge of Sexual Reproductive Health said that the Reproductive Health policy will last 6 years from 2018 to 2024.
The policy aims at reducing maternal and child mortality as well as Sexual Transmitted Illnesses (STIs).
In addition, RBC wants to top up the number of parents who use family planning methods from 48 to 60 percent by 2024. This will help to reduce births from 4.2 to 3.3 by 2024.
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