Rays of Hope: Preventing Child Sexual Abuse through Community Awareness Raising and Training - Northern Uganda: Districts of Kitgum and Pader

his project focuses on prevention of child sexual abuse (CSA) in Uganda. It will be implemented in the post-war districts of Kitgum and Pader, where police reports indicate at least 6 cases of CSA reported per day. Most victims are girls and perpetrators are mainly persons in authority or relatives. This high prevalence is attributed to the chaotic war environment in which the community lives where sexual abuse is rampant, abject poverty which results in forced marriages of the girl children in exchange for bride wealth and lack of collaboration of the local communities with the police hence cases of CSA are not reported and the few reported cases are abandoned for “out of court settlements”. This sexual abuse has a negative impact on girl children including trauma, high school dropout, early marriages, high incidences of domestic violence and HIV/AIDS. The goal of the project is to end CSA through grassroots mobilization and sensitization of the communities. This shall be achieved through sensitization meetings with the local communities on dangers of CSA, dialogue meetings with the local leaders for advocacy, development of information, communication and education materials for prevention of CSA in schools and training of community development officers and the police on handling and investigating cases of CSA. This five years project will be implemented by Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development.