The authorities in Masaka have ordered the closure of ten children’s homes accused of operating without authorization. They are Hozana children’s home, Halleluiah, Nazareth Children home, Okoya Refugee Center, White Angel Children’s Home, Kyanamukaka and Budukiro children’s center. Others are Nazareth children’s Home, Aid Child, and River of River children’s home.
Maria Nagawa, the Masaka district Probation officer who is leading the screening exercise of the children’s homes says that they have ordered the closure of ten children’s agencies for breach of the law. She explains that the affected schools are not licensed and have been keeping children under very poor sanitary conditions. According to the Government policy, children’s homes must have a health worker, social worker, and must keep children in a clean environment.
She also accuses the management of the children’s homes of using vulnerable children as baits to solicit for funds from donors.
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Jude Ddamura, the Capacity Building Specialist, Save the Children says that the lack of basic requirements exposes vulnerable children to many risks including child trafficking, sexual exploitation and malnutrition.
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When urn reporter visited some of the affected children’s homes on Tuesday, it was business as usual. At Budukiro children’s center, Hosanna children center and Aid Child Care center, some children were seen doing some work such as cleaning the environment, fetching water while others were playing in the compounds. However, apart from Budukiro children center whose managers agreed to speak to URN, officials in other homes declined to speak about their impending closure.
At Aid Child and Hossana children center, unidentified security guards blocked URN from entering the premises on grounds that management does not entertain strangers. The guards asked our reporter to leave saying he does not have any appointment to meet the authorities. Keith Ssenkubuge, the Program Manager Budukiro Children’s Agencies insists that his organization was approved to operate.
He claims that they have a nurse who takes care of the children. Ssenkubuge cites an example of two families from Buchuro village that had been infected by jiggers but have been rehabilitated by his organization.
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Records from Masaka district community Development Office show that only three Children’s agencies have provisional operational licenses. An estimated 500 vulnerable children are being kept in the children’s home ordered to close.
