Protection Services for 100 Rural Kenyan Children

Our current initiative was largely inspired by the end-of-term review of the partnership project we carried out with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Mwala Sub-County, Machakos County, Kenya, from September 2021 to August 2023. The project aimed to improve the ability of local community members to organize and carry out community-based child abuse prevention initiatives by providing them with the essential information, skills, and competencies on child protection.

Typically, Mwala Sub-County is a rural area with few economic prospects, little economic activity, and high rates of poverty.A high rate of child pregnancy has been brought on by the widespread tendency of rural-to-urban migration in search of employment prospects.During the migration, young men and women in the village leave most families, particularly children, in the hands of grandparents who are unable to adequately raise them. As a result, many families become dysfunctional, with children getting involved in sexual activities that result in early and unplanned pregnancies, as well as sexual-related criminal offences. Unfortunately, when such offences such as defilement are committed, the community tends to settle the cases internally through payment of compensation by abuser/perpetrators.

Because of this, community leaders were chosen by the local Assistant Chiefs (15 engaged members in each sub-location) to attend a three-day training on topics such as child development, legal implications/ necessary processes, and protecting children from sexual abuse and early pregnancy. Before they were completely assigned as community volunteers, they participated in practicum that included preparatory sessions to discuss these concerns in the communities and monitoring by the organization's staff as they conducted the actvities. After completing the training program, 115 community volunteers in all were given identification cards and approved as volunteers after conferring with administrative officials.

As a result, even before the project ended, community members had began carrying out child protection activities. The community volunteers also submitted 305 reports on the implementation of early pregnancy prevention activities. According to the reports, the total number of community members and primary school students who participated in their early pregnancy prevention activities was 16,989. 

The community aslo provided feedback on the activities through questionnaires distributed to local residents and primary school students who took part in the early pregnancy prevention activities. A total of 443 responses were received. 219 questionnaires were completed by community members, while 224 questionnaires were submitted by participating school children and parents at the target primary schools. According to the questionnaire responses, many respondents stated that they had learnt about parents' responsibility for child protection, the importance of supervising children, and children's rights to protection through volunteer activities. Almost half of the community members believed that poor childcare and child neglect were the causes of early pregnancy. 

Due to this, there is still a need in this community to raise awareness, with a focus on children and youth during the school holidays when they are most vulnerable to child abuse and even unexpected pregnancies. 

Links:

• Anastasia's Interview on Raising Awareness in the Community.