Author: ANTHONY TAMBWE
AfricaPress-Tanzania: WITH cases of violence against seemingly on the increase, the government should create and design by-laws which task perpetrators and put citizens on the alert.
This was said on Thursday by 13-year old Johnson Binaisa, a standard seven pupil at Bomambili Primary School in Kivule ward, Ilala District, where he said that because most Tanzanians are law abiding citizens, maybe this will help tackle the problem.
He said that apart from designing the by-laws, the government should be on the front line and make sure that they monitor their implementation and act tough on any individual who goes against them.
“I am sure that if these by-laws are put into play, cases of child violence, which in this case applies also to Female Genital mutilation (FGM), will decline to a large extent, but the main thing is to make sure that they are monitored closely,” he said.
Binaisa, who is also the Chairman of the school’s anti child violence club, said that parents and guardians on the other hand have a great role to play in making sure that these cases are eliminated in the society, because relying on the government only continues to delay the process.
The anti-child violence clubs in schools is a project implemented by Action for Justice in Society (AJISO) who formed a Child Protection Policy that is being used in two regions of Kilimanjaro and Dar es Salaam, which involves Mwanga and Ilala districts respectively.
Ms Tunu Mrutu, the AJISO Project Coordinator, who is also the society’s lawyer, said that the child protection project started in 2018 and is expected to end in September this year, where it was expected to curb cases of violence in schools and at the same time empower the students so that they can offer the education to others.
She said the project also aimed at creating clubs in schools, where they have managed to surpass their target in the number of students they targeted to reach.
Currently, she said the project is implemented in two wards in the two regions, which is Mwanga in Kilimanjaro and Kivule in Dar es Salaam, and involves several schools, including Mbonea, Misitu and Kerezange secondary schools in Kivule, and Dr Asha Rose Migiro Secondary School in Mwanga, Kilimanjaro.
“The school heads, teachers and other staff in the schools have developed and implemented a child protection concept, and they have also established a network and cooperation with external structures for help, which includes educational offices and police gender and children desk, which provide effective case management,” she said.
