Busia County Children’s Department in collaboration with African Network for Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect has launched a project aimed at curbing commercial sex exploitation on children.
Speaking during the official launch of the project on Thursday, ANPPCAN Western Regional Coordinator Sophie Omutanyi said the two-year project will cover Matayos and Bunyala Sub Counties.
“The project is to end on September 2021 but it might be extended for a longer period,” she said adding that the organization will strengthen the existing child protection structures.
Omutanyi stated that the government is their main partner because it is its responsibility to protect its citizens, especially children.
She pointed out that commercial sexual exploitation of children was identified by the organization when they were conducting other projects like Child Participation in the region.
“A rapid assessment was done to identify the scope of the problem in July this year and indeed showed that there was a problem of commercial sexual exploitation of children in Busia County,” she said.
The official explained that the organization however settled on Matayos and Bunyala Sub Counties because they were strongly affected by the vice due to limited funds.
Omutanyi appealed to the government to allocate more funds and ensure that the rights of children are fully upheld and child-friendly services are easily accessible to children.
According to the survey, 95.5% interviewees said that there was the commercial sexual exploitation of children in Matayos Sub County, 93.8% confirmed the existence of the vice in Bunyala and 100% of respondents confirmed that there was commercial sexual exploitation in the area.
Busia County Children’s Coordinator Esther Wasige thanked the organization for the initiative adding that it has been supporting eight other projects in the County.