Child protection needs more attention - RPCGA

Research Programme on Children and Global Adversity (RPCGA), an international organization that focuses on improving protection and care for children and families facing adversity due to armed conflicts and other atrocities, has called for increased attention on child protection. Theresa Betancourt, assistant professor of child health and human rights department of global health and population at Harvard University, on the sidelines of a workshop at Alpha Palace Hotel in Kigali, said that although the country has done a lot in assisting people who were affected by the 1994 Genocide the Tutsi, children should be given first priority. “Am impressed by the government’s policies in developing children, such as universal education…, but I am realizing that children need more attention from the grassroots,” she told Sunday Times. RPCGA conducted a research in the country, last year, from March to April and found out that there are some children who are dropping out of schools due to lack of financial support. “We did research in some places like Kigali, Gitarama and Gisenyi and we interviewed different groups of children and discovered that due to poverty some children drop out.” “If a child is not at school he or she will start engaging in destructive acts like prostitution… the out come will be a threat to a country.” The head of mental health desk in the Ministry of Health, Yvonne Kayiteshonga, said that they looking into the issue.“We don’t disagree with the findings of this research, we are also going to investigate why children drop out and see what we can do to solve these problems, otherwise we know that children need protection and education,” she said. Ends