The Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion in collaboration with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have reviewed strategies to curb down the rate of violence against children in a meeting held at Serena Hotel.
The main strategies agreed include setting up a children commission, encouraging teachers to fight against child abuse and teaching children to break the silence in anything to do with violence.
While closing the conference Minister for Gender and Family Promotion Aloysia Inyumba said: ‘The recommendations reviewed will be implemented in form of ‘Imihigo’ performance- based which will speed up the initiative.
“The cabinet has also announced that starting next week the children commission will start operating mainly focusing on violence against children and fighting for their rights” Inyumba said.
The Rwandan government has been fighting child abuse in homes, schools and communities since 1994 after the genocide through projects like Imbuto foundation.
The children commission will enable leaders and parents to listen to voice of children through quarterly newsletters on child issues.
Ten percent of Rwanda’s children struggle to survive without one or both parents which increase the rate of child abuse.
It will also promote the culture of people protecting children living with disabilities like deaf and psychological problems from any violence against child rights.
The minister observed that in Rwanda the most problems encountered against children include rape, children working under age, children living with HIV AIDS and families which still allow keeping silence when some of the members violated children rights.
The conference was opened on September 3 by the first lady Mrs. Jeannette Kagame who conveyed a clear message on how children should be protected right away from their homes and how the government has put more effort in punishing people that abuse children.
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