How many a mile must a child or woman race to get a “medal”?
Cheptegei just broke another world record in racing in mid-February at the Monaco Run Herculis in France. This kind of racing takes a lot of discipline, hard work, self-leadership, risk, resilience, endurance and sacrifice. Now that he has adhered to all these in his race to a new world record, we can gladly claim that he is our own son, friend and patriot. We can throw thank you parties or name him the best sports personality of the year including perhaps a high-profile handshake and still do nothing with the other aspiring Cheptegeis.
My mothers, sisters and aunts allover the world also run. They run daily in a race that requires similar virtues like those exercised by Cheptegei. They run a race in broken families, homes and in single parenthood. They run in a wallow of domestic violence and poverty. In sickness and hunger they run, but when will they get to the finishing point or break this record?
Unfortunately, a large number of children have involuntarily joined this race. They run alongside their mothers and old grandmothers in myriads of all forms of child abuse.
They run miles of neglect, torture, forced labour and hunger in homes and schools. They run miles of diseases and deprivation of educational rights. They run miles without school stationery and an exemplary inspiring teacher. A recordless race they run. Many I see in the communities I work, laboring as sugarcane cutters, others indulging in fishing activities. On the streets of Kampala and her suburbs they are vending, elsewhere they are either destroying the environment by burning charcoal, herding cows or being sexually molested by relatives and friends.
According to the New vision drop 42.8% children drop out of school. Uganda has the highest dropout rates in East Africa but what are you doing about it? Which trouble have you taken to know the concrete causes of these dropouts? When the Ugandan hon minister for youth and children affairs is overwhelmed by the files of women seeking justice for their recordless race, she is doing something about the children’s issues but what thing are you doing lovers which has a direct impact on the children and the future of this world?
When the Uganda annual police report of 2018 mentions that 341 girls and women die of domestic violence and the world bank also highlights that 35% of women and girls allover the world are affected with this crime, they are just affirming a recordless race which has existed. police, bankd, abuse &children
If some stakeholders also run like Cheptegei, tones of miles creating injustices for children, youth and women there will be no medal. If some people run a race of corruption to inhibit the dispensation of services to children, youth and women, there will be no value in the conversations about the future…
It’s for this reason that I choose to leave my dominion and comfort in order to be dominated with a power so strong that one day all children of Uganda will acquire an excellent education.
I am empowering the girls and boys through education in all schools I traverse. We emphasize their rights and responsibilities in schools and families. We believe that the more educated the woman gets the better for the world, the children and education/ the more of the good change we shall see.
Like skilling Uganda project, we target the young children so that they learn basic entrepreneurship skills for economic sustenance. We request that the government focuses on the mothers in marriage or living independently. This will drastically reduce on the domestic violence cases and deaths.
We should be holding workshops geared to empower men with the knowledge and skills of collaboratively working and living in harmony with their aspiring and ambitious female partners. Let the emancipations talks be led by real men-men who mean well for their daughters, sisters and their neighbours’ daughters not the parochialists and cowards. And like the community policing unit, there should be a family policing unit with a moderate budget for civic education in family crime running all over the country doing outreaches.
Finally, the injustices affecting women and children greatly affect the education system and the learning outcomes of all the children. We can do better to set a new world record if we choose to address poverty, insecurity, hunger, disease among others that affect our children, women and youths on a daily basis if we are to achieve the 4th SDG in developing countries.
