Email
Print
Save
August 7, 2012 (BENTIU) - Unity state Ministry of Gender and Child Welfare, in collaboration with the UN’s Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and the South Sudan Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Commission (SSDDRC), on Tuesday unveiled a plan to assist 83 street children in the state capital, Benitu, and surrounding county, Rubkotna.
- Innocent Lazarus Latjor, Unity state minister of gender and child welfare talking to Sudan Tribune in her office, August 7, 2012 (ST)
Minister of gender and child welfare, Innocent Lazarus Latjor, said she had had a meeting with the children’s protection organisations to assist the street children by providing them with primary school education.
Latjor told Sudan Tribune on Tuesday that 93 children were found on streets, 83 of which were living there. According to the Ministry’s survey, conducted in July, ten of them fled their family homes due to a lack of basic provisions.
She explained that a proposal had been submitted to non-governmental organisations (NGO) and the state government to build two children’s centres providing accommodation and schooling facilities for the destitute children.
Many of the street children previously became child soldiers in the South Sudan army (SPLA) but this has been brought under control by the SSDDRC which demobilised many of them through the SPLA Child Protection Unit.
The recently independent South Sudan lost many of children’s mothers and fathers to decades of civil war. With insufficient social care systems in place some children without the requisite familial structures in place have to resort to a life on the street.
Michael Ker, director of child protection in the ministry said the survey found that too many children are on streets in Unity state, living in poor conditions. He described them as behaving like wild animals, fleeing when they see people who often suspect them of criminal acts such as theft in the markets. “They look at people as their enemies, they don’t look people as people who can save them,” said Ker.
(ST)
Latest Comments & Analysis
NCP Parliament Speaker will not negotiate with those who carry arms 2013-05-23 08:09:52 By Mahmoud A. Suleiman May 22, 2013 - This article comes on the backdrop of the war drums beating campaign orchestrated by the National Congress Party (NCP) regime Parliament Speaker, Ahmed (...)
At the Mercy of the Sky, South Sudanese professionals 2013-05-23 08:02:35 By Suzanne Jambo May 22, 2013 - "I have nothing to hide and I walk away with my head high. There was absolutely no board meeting to discuss my issue. The reason given were unilateral spending (...)
National unity: a project for each and every South Sudanese 2013-05-21 14:23:01 By Jacob K. Lupai May 21, 2013 - South Sudan has just attained independence from an imposed unity that had failed miserably to take into account the objective realities on the ground. In the old (...)
MORE