Managing Church and Ministry Conflict

Final Uganda Report

Many of you have shown interest in my trip to Uganda. I have decided to include one final report. Actually these are excerpts from a proposal one of my former students is writing to obtain a grant to begin a program to assist children. It will give you some information as to the plight of children in not only Uganda, but indeed the whole continent of Africa. Note the adaptive issues that this posses, issues that the University where I teach is attempting to address.

BACKGROUND

In Uganda, like else where in Africa, children have always worked within their families. They participate in cooking, washing, and, fetching firewood and water. Gradually through observation, guidance and supervision the children were prepared for the roles expected of them during adulthood. During this process of socialization children grew to maturity. The important phenomenon in this environment was the fact that children’s work was devoid of exploration. This is what has always been referred to as child work, which is permissible, if not desirable in children’s upbringing.

On the other hand, child labor refers to work, which is hazardous and the circumstances of its performance jeopardizes the health, safety, education and morals of the child. The general criteria of determining child labor being the age of the child, nature of work, duration the child has to spend on the work and criteria for its performance.

There is a mounting body of evidence that children in Uganda for long have been subjected to various forms of child abuse, especially related to child labor. The 1991 Population and Housing Census and the 1992-3 Integrated Household survey revealed that one in four children aged between 10-14 years were involved in some form of work. From the various urban and rural domestic servants of middle class elites’ homes, to the small peasants’ shambas, large plantations and cattle keeping rangelands, working children are a familiar sight. In the expanding entertainment industry, the quarries and construction sites, the garages of second hand Japanese vehicles, and the informal commercial sector, the wheels of Uganda’s economy are oiled by the sweat of children, without equal benefit to them.

Today the traditional expectation of children to work as part of their up bringing, childhood development and education, has been replaced by the struggle for survival on the part of children. With armed conflict and HIV/AIDS, every principle of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is at risk of being violated. Whether it is the right to education and development or health, or whether it is the right to self-protection from exploitation and harm. All of these are endangered. Literature now abounds that it is detrimental to the child, whether it is armed conflict or AIDS, any condition that disrupts the normal activities, enhances participation of children in chores that would otherwise be performed by adults.

With AIDS and prolonged internal conflict, many children are orphans or have parents who are totally helpless to provide for their care and up bringing. In this environment children are expected to contribute substantially, if not wholly, to their basic needs such as clothing, food, medical care, and formal education. With the scourge of AIDS, internal conflict and poverty, this care is often required by their parents, brothers and sisters as well.

The HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Uganda
The first cases of HIV/AIDS were reported in Uganda in 1982. Since then, the HIV/AIDS pandemic has taken its toll, resulting in lowering of life expectancy from 54 years to 47 years (GOU-UNICE Country Program, 2001-2005). At the end of 1997, it was estimated that at nearly 1 million people (or 9.51% of adult population aged between 15 and 49 years) were living with HIV/AIDS that AIDS has accounted for 1.8 million deaths by that date. It is also reported that AIDS is responsible for 12% of annual deaths in Uganda and has surpassed malaria and other diseases as a leading cause of death amongst individuals aged between 15 and 45 years.

Violence and Armed Conflict
Armed conflict in Uganda started with the 1979 Liberation War. It went on throughout the end of 1980’s with the districts in the immediate neighborhood of Kampala being largely affected by a 1981-1986 Guerilla War (Luwero Triangle). The period 1987 up to date saw an uprising in the Northern Uganda and the Eastern parts of Uganda that led many families to be displaced from their means of survival, to protected villages or camps. Though Eastern Uganda was largely pacified in the early 1990’s, further incursions from across the borders as well as the increased cattle raids from the north Eastern region by Karamojong warriors resulted in considerable displacement of the population within the region and neighboring districts.

From 1997, the insurgency of the magnitude that characterized Northern Uganda throughout the one and a half decades was extended to Kabarole - Mt Rwenzori high lands (The western Region of Uganda). This resulted in internal displacement of the population many of whom have either fled to Internally Displaced People camps. Some of the displaced people are however living with relatives in safer locations. It is estimated that armed conflict or its effects currently affects about 26 districts nationally.

According to the new GOU-UNICEF Country program (2001-2005) armed conflict has increased separation of families with some members living in towns (mainly children to avoid abduction) others in camps while some few continue to subsist in rural areas. With the new settings in the camps/protected areas, more and more children have not had the support of extended family and often lack adequate parental care.

Child Labor
Child labor has been identified as a major social problem in Uganda although no official national data can verify the situation. More than 2.5 million children are thought to be engaged in child labor activities. Engagement in child labor is very often known to be detrimental to children’s education and their right to normal development and progress.

The problem of child labor is associated with rapid increase in the population, poverty and HIV/AIDS scourge, decline of economic and social services of the 1970s and 80s as well as negative effect of the economic reform programs such as retrenchments and cutbacks in production leading to massive unemployment.

AIDS has tremendously increased the social costs of caring for the sick people leading to orphaned children in communities and households. A GOU-UNICEF study in 1996 found that in nearly all HIV/AIDS affected families, many orphans and children were forced to leave school and care for themselves and other family members or provide nursing/ care for sick relatives (Mwaka and Tumusime, 1996). As a result of HIV/AIDS the extended family system was strained to the limits due to the large family size and the absence of young adults which often entailed the leaving of several children under the care of older orphans or grandparents.

It was estimated that by the end of 1997, there were 1.1 million orphans under 15 years of age (due to AIDS), and a further 0.6 million youth or young adults who had been orphans when they were in the same age bracket. Even with the recent downturn in sero-prevalence, the figure is projected to peak by 2010, but still to remain unusually high up to 2020. Many of these children live in child-headed households. Much of the land of the deceased parents, farms lies fallow or is used for subsistence crops only.

Approximately 44% of Ugandans live in absolute poverty. When orphans are into homes they are often treated badly (made to do twice as much of the household chores as the children of their new care takers, segregated at meal times, given less food or less nutritious food and have limited access to beddings). It is estimated that 16% of same children aged between 15 and 18 years are in the labour force (mainly as unpaid family workers). The same children are more vulnerable to other rights violations, such as exploitation by greedy relatives or neighbors who do not fulfill rights to inheritance, education, health, and other social services, and often suffer from sexual abuse.

Amidst this seemingly hopeless situation, there is a reason for hope. Recent data indicates a significant declining trend in HIV sero-prevalence and incidence. In urban sentinel site surveillance through antenatal clinics all sites showed evidence of significant decline through the first half of the 1990s-by as much as 10% to 15% in same sites. This has resulted from increased knowledge leading to avoidance of risky behaviors. Declining wages and producer prices have further fuelled the plight of poor households leading to household inability to provide for all their members especially children.

According to the World Vision 46% of the population of Uganda still live in absolute poverty and Uganda was ranked the 20th poorest country in the world. HIV/AIDS and the persistent civil strife compound Uganda’s poverty. The phenomenon of single parent and child headed households occurring as a result of HIV/AIDS or armed conflict associated mortality and displacement has put a strain on many already impoverished families (Luyima, 2000). Uganda has an estimated 1.7 million orphans resulting from AIDS a figure in child expected to rise to 3.5 million within 10 years (UNICEF, 2000). Many of these children are staying in child headed households or with grandparents who are themselves in need of care. Left on their own for personal survival or with an additional burden of caring for sibling and grand parents such have became part of the potential child laborers.

Peace,
Jim