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18 October, 2021

NATIONAL MENTAL HEALTH AND PSYCHOSOCIAL SUPPORT FORUM

Greetings to you all Ladies and Gentlemen.

I would like to acknowledge and appreciate the presence of all Children in the SADC Region, and all Distinguished guests herein present.

I would like to start by introducing myself as Mr. Comfort Rungwe, the current Chairperson of the Chobe District Children’s Forum, Botswana. I am a child.

First and foremost being a child is not a boys play, meaning it is not a joke at all, and it is not as easy as people or the society think it is. We as children we are continuously faced with challenges which disturb our mental health and our growth.

For example: child exploitation and child labour; sexual abuse through defilement of forced sex work; Child trafficking leading to body parts sold and drug trafficking, etc.

We children are very much impacted as we usually find ourselves in streets, whereby the society will call us “street children” and this has negative impact on us as children. The phenomena of homeless children is very troubling, day and night as we find ourselves roaming the streets with no place to go, no place to stay  or no shelter, and we even go on some days without food. However, we find ourselves in miserable conditions where we will find ourselves being victims of gang violence or crimes.

Moreover, we also found us a children being exploited or being involved in child labour at farms, construction sites, car washes, where we will be forced to work for long hours with very little money to support our families (playing the parental role) and with no education, even though we have a right to education.

Some of us as children we are being recruited in a way of being trafficked, whereby we find ourselves being exposed to infectious diseases due to sex work, or prostitution, teenage pregnancy, drug trafficking and also in human trafficking where our body parts are being sold to other people all over the world. These are heartbreaking issues which are being done by people who are supposed to protect us.

Child abuse is one of the challenges faced by children as some are abused physically: be punched, beaten up, burnt, kicked; and all these are done by our parents, teachers or even other students to one another. We also experience emotional abuse; beind verbally abused, as sometimes we receive high pitched voices, tongue lashing or use of vulgar and disrespectful language.

SEXUAL ABUSE: the most painful part of abuse as is commonly done by people meant to protect us, this includes the inappropriate touching of our private parts and raping us.

The society is not playing their role as we feel neglected, and also we lack guidance from our parents, family members as they spend most of their time drinking alcohol and on substance abuse, hence as children we learn negative life skills from our peers and some of us end up engaging in criminal activities (juvenile delinquency) such as theft.

WHAT CAN GOVERNMENT DO FOR US?

Due to inaccessible government skills which are not reachable to all children in our district, we are appealing to the government to form clubs in all schools from the primary level to secondary level, where we can share ideas, experience and emotions about the challenges we are going through and how to get immediate help without victimization.

Abuse of drugs and alcohol cases are prominent in our society resulting in lots of school drop outs, hence there is need for more rehabilitation centres to curb wron behaviour of children.

Although Section 25 Part III of the Children’s Act is still sang everyday, ‘évery child has the right to protection against sexual abuse and exploitation’, the government should strictly recommend that no bail should be given to those who abuse children since they make leave a permanent mark on the children’s lives.

As I stated above, we have lack of parental guidance and lots of negligence mostly or popularly in the boarding schools in our area since students stay away from their parents and teachers alone cannot  handle the pressure of teenagers in large groups at boarding schools , we are appealing to the government to bring resources in villages in order to curb boarding students from lack of parental guidance.

Social Workers should hold campaigns, make posters written in different languages for everyyone to understand  or present their points on issues faceb by children through drama shows educating society about  the dangers and consequences of children’s rights. Government should also introduce television programs about child welfare issues  and child friendly services in all departments and organizations providing services to us as children.

No words can express the amount of gratitude I have to have been given the opportunity to express the views of the children of my district.

Thank you for your attention.

May it rain (A pula e ne).