WESTERN PROVINCE

RUBAVU — All children should be enrolled in school because they are the country’s future leaders, Senator Agnes Kayizire has said.

Kayizire, also the head of the Welfare Parliamentary Commission reaffirmed their [commission] resolve to ensure improved welfare for all children in the country.

"Children are the leaders and the future of this country. That is why efforts are needed to help them grow into responsible citizens who will contribute to the country’s development. This can only be attained if they are provided with education," Kayizire who led other law makers to evaluate Rubavu district efforts to improve children welfare said recently.

The law makers held a meeting with district leaders in which they urged them to track vulnerable children in the district including orphans, and street children. They asked district leaders to distribute the children in the existing orphanages for informal and formal education.

Jacqueline Bakunduseruye, the district vice Mayor in charge of social affairs explained that the district with the support of other charity organisations has provided vulnerable children with basic necessities and enrolled them in different schools.

She however observed that the district was constrained financially to provide the children with all the required necessities. She explained that the district has helped children form various clubs which act as centers of various sports activities.

On child labour, the vice Mayor noted that the vice had scaled down due to awareness campaigns by local leaders.

"I’m happy to note that the continuous campaign carried out by local leaders at all levels has registered some success. We recently had a big number of children that were withdrawn from schools by their parents to work on tea plantations in various parts of the district. But through sensitization campaign carried out by local leaders, such cases have greatly reduced," Bakunduseruye said.

It however emerged that the number children employed in domestic work was still high. According to statistics about 90% of housemaids are children between 14 and 18 years of age, some of which have been subjected to different form of mistreatment including sexual abuse by their male bosses.

Bakunduseruye appealed to the laws makers to present a debate on the construction of tourist sites in Rubavu in order to increase the district’s internal revenue. "We have many historical places in our district such as Lake Kivu, Nengo and Rubavu hills where the Germans and Belgians fought from during World War1 and Nyundo Diocese which is one of the oldest in the country, once developed, they can bring in more foreign exchange," she said.

The legislators later visited Rugerero sector, Kanzenze and Nyondo to carry out a similar evaluation.

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