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this page Newsletters - Violence and the Family
Uganda
Children make up over 50% of the population of Uganda today. They are one of the most marginalised groups in Ugandan society. The popular image of the harmonious African community where people have unlimited time for family members and cherish children as a precious blessing, is far from the reality nowadays. The pressures of modernisation mean that all too many children see very little of their parents, who are both working hard to make ends meet. Often they are brought up instead by housekeepers who may share very few of the parents’ values. The HIV/AIDS crisis and the guerilla war in the north of the country have produced many orphans and single parent families. Crime is on the increase, and child abuse is rife. Whereas in the past, teachers were seen as exemplary role models, statistics reveal that many engage in child abuse. Some children turn to life on the streets as an escape from their many problems, but may quickly find themselves caught up in a spiral of drugs, crime and prison.
Some ways forward
Uganda is widely known as a “Christian” country. So what is the Church doing in response to the crisis among children? A brief visit to a typical Ugandan church tends to confirm the gloomy picture. Many children are simply left at home on Sundays while adults go to church. For those children who do attend, few activities are provided for them and there is little sense of the importance of nurturing children in the faith so that they can grow up as Christians and responsible members of society.
But let’s take a closer look at what’s really happening. The “typical” Ugandan church isn’t the only side to the story. God has been at work to establish the beginnings of a children’s ministry for the whole of the Church of Uganda. The seeds of this project were sown by CMS mission partners, and in the past year the Archbishop of Uganda, realizing the importance of this ministry, has set up an independent Unit for Children’s Ministry.
The Unit works with children aged three to fifteen. We partner with other organisations and churches to fulfil our call to build a holistic ministry for children which nurtures them and brings them up to know God’s love, providing a strong future foundation for the Ugandan church and nation.
This vision is beginning to be implemented in various ways. There is an urgent need for adults who are committed to working with children and understand their needs, so training is one of the Unit’s priorities. Teams of Trainers of Trainers (TOT) are being formed, whose task is to train other workers in children’s ministry at provincial, diocesan and archdeaconry levels. A particular focus of the training sessions is learning how to enable children to develop their own skills. Trainers learn how to encourage good health and hygiene habits in children, how to develop awareness and care for the environment, how to develop literacy skills, and how to train children to witness their faith to friends and family members.
Parents are also in desperate need of training. They need support in bringing up their children in a society which is changing with dizzying speed. Traditional family structures and practices are disintegrating in the face of the breakneck pace of modernisation. The Unit seeks to pass on parenting skills to adults. Parents need help with how to bring up children in a loving manner, listening to them and counselling them, building awareness in them of today’s society and how to respond to the many influences and dangers they are exposed to. The Unit raises awareness of theresponsibilities parents have for children’s spiritual development, and how to fulfil these by taking children to church, praying with them, talking with them about God, telling stories and playing.
The Children’s Ministry Unit not only trains others to educate and care for children, but also interacts directly with them through the establishment of children’s groups at a village level. These groups, led by trained adults, aim to foster mutual support and friendships between children. The Unit also works in schools, discussing topics such as AIDS and educating children about basic rights and expectations such as the right to education, to life within a family context, the right to know God, and to grow in their faith.
Another focus of the Unit is the creation of written materials for children’s use, which help to develop children’s reading skills as well as contributing to their spiritual development. In future the Unit aims to start producing children’s health books.
Our efforts to reach war-torn areas have been hindered by many obstacles. But the ministry has started seeing fruits in different areas. In May, when the team visited children in the remand home in Kampala, we were amazed at children’s response. Musa, aged 14, who was detained after killing his brother said, “If I had heard what you have said before, I should not have killed him”.
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