5.8 billion shillings approved by cabinet to handle resettlement of street children in Uganda
Minister of State for Youth and Children, Florence Nakiwala Kiyingi has revealed that cabinet has approved 5.8bn Uganda shillings for resettlement of street children surviving on the streets of Uganda.
In a press meeting on Tuesday 22/October, 2019 in Kampala, Nakiwala noted that the 5.8bn shillings approved by the cabinet will be used to enforce the settlement and rehabilitation plan of street kids drafted last year in June.
“Cabinet noted progress in the implementation of withdrawal, rehabilitation, tracing and resettlement of street children action plan and this necessitated cabinet to approve 5.8bn to enforce the strategic plan that was embarked on in June last year,” Nakaiwala said.
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In her remarks, Nakiwala said that last year the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development asked for 3.4bn shillings as supplementary funding and agreed that it will be released annually.
She says only 1bn shilling was released by the Finance Ministry and leaving a non-paid balance of 2.4bn shillings, which now brings the total to 5.8bn shillings.
So, that frustrated their work plan which began in June last year by the ministry in collaboration with KCCA, because they could not do much with the limited resources they had.
“Only one out of the 3.4bn shillings was released, so we could not be able to achieve the entire work plan as we set out to do it. For example, we could not reach out beyond Kampala City,” Nakiwala said.
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Additionally, Nakiwala said that government plans to extend the activities of resettlement of street children and rehabilitation to areas outside Kampala this include; Wakiso District, Busia District, other urban centres harbouring street kids and to Northern Uganda.
Meanwhile, Nakiwala says 725 street children have so far been rescued and are under their custody receiving rehabilitation services.
Earlier on, Minister Nakiwala in the move to offset street children out of Kampala streets passed a resolution to hunt down anyone found offering street children money.
According to Minister Nakiwala, this was the reason why these children exist on the streets, they are attracted to live on the streets because of the money some people give them.
She, however, said her ministry will work for hand in hand with traffic officers to arrest anyone offering money to these street children and use government security and intelligence to crack down these children.
Nakiwala adds that about 15,000 street children live on the streets countrywide, of which 2,000 are surviving on Kampala streets right from 6months old children.
She, however, attributed the rising cases of street children to high poverty rates, domestic violence and unscrupulous individuals who lure them to major towns, promising them a better lifestyle, but only to end up serving the selfish interests of the traffickers.
