By Steven Enatu
SOROTI
The cultural and faith based institutions have been challenged to promote positive norms and values in society that end violence against children.
The call was raised by Catherine Atim Ejoku the child protection officer world Vision Soroti cluster while presenting during the familiarization and inception meeting with leaders from the Kumam Cultural heritage.
According to Atim, cultural institutions have the power to raise children with positive cultural norms and values that uphold and promote children’s safety in society if they take into consideration how negative norms can affect children.
She said for example that in the past, cultural institutions would engage young girls into marriages with older persons and this would be termed a norm. Atim noted that the two institutions need to work together and ensure that both girls and boys are at school.
For long, people of faith have been known for leading the child rights, freeing children from child labor, slavery, prostitution and ensuring that they have access to nutritious food and clean water.
Today there are still religious actors who consider human rights a threat to their religious beliefs and principles. Some still argue for child marriages, corporal punishment even when it goes against their religious texts. Jointly with cultural institutions, the two tend to put tradition above the needs and the rights of the most vulnerable like children.
Meanwhile, George William Omuge, the chairperson Kumam Cultural Heritage appreciated world vision for enlightening them as cultural leaders but noted that as Kumam Cultural heritage, they cannot uphold norms that are harmful to the modern society.
“But also we need to be keen because there are changes that are destructive, we need to be careful as we adopt them,” he said.
Samuel Eyenga, the Prime Minister Kumam Cultural Heritage said that as the youngest cultural institution, they pledge total commitment in working with world vision in the child center aspect which he says is their focus point.
“We are also looking at the aspect of the economy, we want to ensure that the households where these children are growing up in are strengthened to enable them to grow well,” he said.
He added that as a Cultural institution, they are the anchors of values in the society and love to see children grow morally upright.
“We have your critical stakeholders which are children, we have areas where we would ask you to partner with us like these values and norms are in oral form but if you could come in to help us document them on in form of a book, it would enable children and other stakeholders understand what to do and what not to do,” Eyenga said.
Eyenga stressed that the institution is well established for mobilization from families, clans, assembly and the cabinet which will enable effective running of any program.
The inception meeting will culminate into a memorandum of understanding between world vision outlining what they both expect from each other.
