A child with disability refers to a child who has physical incapacity either congenital or caused by injury or disease. Some disabilities are so visible and some are much less visible.

There are different types of disability;

 Mental retardation

Caused by a wide variety of factors eg injury at birth due to serious illness during pregnancy

Cerebral palsy 

Results from brain damage, usually before or during birth

 Traumatic brain injury  

Results from blunt injuries when ones’ head is hit by a fixed or moving object, such as a wind shied or baseball bat

 Learning disability

Some children have disabilities that interfere with their ability to read write, spell or do mathematics calculation. They may also have trouble in listening, speaking or thinking. These children appear perfectly normal until they go to school.

Disability has been viewed historical as media problems or personal tragedy. Societies’ prejudices and discrimination were overtly identified as major barriers preventing children with disability from making control of their own lives as were stereotypes pet rayed in the popular.

Form of discrimination against children with disabilities continues to be serious and pervasive social problems in the communities and family too. Discrimination against children with disability persist in families, public accommodation, education, transportation, communication, recreation and health services.

Article 23 of UN convention stipulates that;

 “Children have the right to enjoy a full and decent life, they  have right to live in way which gives them self confidence, disabled children should not be hidden  or laughed at, they  should be helped to live independently and to take party in community activities”

Children with disability have the right to special care. The government must make sure that disabled children get special care to help them reach their full potential and become an active part of the community for example in some primary school in Tanzania blind children take part in the same classes as children who can see well .The children who are blind are given assistance by teachers who are trained specifically to help them.

Disabled children have been forced into sexual relationship, raped and sexually abused. However in 1998 the Sexual Offences Special Provision Act was enacted, the community did not streamline any measures to protect disabled children from any form of discrimination.

Awareness should be disseminated to the community and in schools to assist the community to develop a more positive expectation towards children with disability and to cope with the ongoing stress Communit  to identify children with disability within their working area and to register them so as to have current number of disabled children and the assistance they need eg special school etc.

Since 1991 the government has made a lot of progress towards promoting and protecting the right of children with disability. However the government still has a long way to go towards fulfilling children’s right. Not all children’s rights in Tanzania are respected. The government in collaboration with Non Governmental Organization have to work hard to improve the situation, let us work together to promote and protect the rights of all children with disability

Pre-school children listerning teacher in the class

 Martn  from Canada  instruction children how to use digital camera,  David  kabambo,  talk with  children who living  with HIV/AIDS.When his vist at  school.

Every one want to leave .no one like to die other wise have a problems .if I could know the day and time to die I could run away to escape death but it  is impossible!! Mum why you kill me because am a child? Don’t use chemical , poison ,and “mwarobaini”  tree to kill me I want to leave like you .i have a dream to become a president ,a lawyer ,  a manager ,a businessman ,a teacher ,a nurse ,a doctoral, a professor,

Due to poverty in  most families  in Africa some girls practice abortion when get pregenancy ,they kill Innocent children,

Let as join and say no Abortion to child!!

“We are children we want to leave mum don’t kill us!!! “

                CHILD RIGHTS

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THEM?

WHAT SHOULD BE DONE TO HELP THEM?

You and I see them they are hectic and in endless movement all day around at the bush /forest .They week look weary and we rely their face looking full of anguish ,but still holding vivid signs of encourage hope and confidence of survival.,

A child soldier is any person who is under 18 years old and who is part of a regular force or armed group  in any  capacity ,other than  purely as family  member .It does  not  only refer to those  carrying  arms  but include cooks, porters, messengers  and  those accompanying such   groups including  girls recruited as concubines forced into “marriage”

Africa had  more armed conflict during the 1990 s  than any other continent  from lager- scale war in Angola, Congo Brazaville,Congo –Kishansha,Ethiopia ,Eritrea ,Rwanda Somalia ,Sudan, and Uganda

Children are vulnerable  at all times but particularly  in situation  of armed conflict both boys and girls are affected ,but girls are vulnerable to sexual exploitation ,Boys are vulnerable to force recruited  by armed groups or force

PROBLEMS  FACING CHILD SOLDIER

Boys and Girls are often forced to become soldiers or they join one of them fighting function because it is their only means of survival .As   child soldier they  are often exposed to drug use and participate in or witnessed  severe ,human  right abuse and violence that will affect them for the rest of lives ,Girls  are treated as ”sex slave” or “bush wives” that  have to cook ,clean and  sexually serve their masters, on whom they are depend for  their survival

REMEDIAL MEASURES AND RESPONSIBILITY

When talking of who is responsible are regards the problems facing child soldier

 Prevention

Work  will undertaken by special human rights unit to make the local authorities  and armed factions aware of the rights of a children  and establish monitoring and support structures in order to prevent the abuse of the right of children ,or to mitigate it where it has  already occurred  Eg  in the case of child soldier

 Advocacy  and Education 

Work will be undertaken to advocate  child protection issues and to educate local authorities  fighting  faction ,politicians ,peacekeepers and others

A child has the following rights

• To life
• To be with a family and community
• To health
• To develop of a personality
• To be nurtured and protected

The convention on the rights of the child CRC has  key principles that should guide all of the actions of adults towards children

Non –discrimination (article2) no discrimination  on basics of race ,gender ,colour religion, ethnicity etc

Best  interest of the child  (article 3) acting in the best interest of the child means doing what is best for the child  and not what is best for you

Participation(  article 12) states that parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his her own view the rights  to express those view freely in  all matters affecting  the  child the view of the  child  given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child for this purpose  the child shall in particular  be provided  the opportunity to be heard  in any judicial  and administrative proceeding affecting the child.

When designing and delivering support intervention for children  infected an /affected by HIV/AIDS, its  critical to create strong positive bond between children ,families and communities as it is ,this every day “life space of child that determines their well being and their vulnerability .Families are the first  line of defense for children .typically it is the family that provides necessities, love, and nurturing and when families can no longer cope or meet these need ,the community becomes the children’s safety net with the magnitude of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and scare resources community based care of infected and or/affected children that involves these critical  sector of a child support net work is essential if programs are to be both sustainable and comprehensive

Diagram   shows ways to socialize with children from grassroots

More than 15 million children under the age of 18, most of them in sub-Sahara Africa  have lost one or both parents to AIDS. Million of children are highly vulnerable because their parents are suffering from AIDS Or become their families are heavily affected by the pandemic. The challenge is to Fid  ways to help communities care .Families .children’s for the unprecedented number  of children and families rendered vulnerable  by HIV/AIDS

Community care who are already taking responsibility for assisting OVC and other vulnerable .Community member,are interested in doing so, these community members often came from one or more community based organization  by providing training and other technical assistance to enhance capacities specific to  caring for OVC  such  as child monitoring and protection, psychosocial support and HIV prevention  facilitating access to education,  health care, and malnutrition,

 SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR AMONG YOUTH  

In  Tanzania  sexual behavior to youth are different, Although  it is  community  known that most HIV/infection , in Tanzania are acquired through sexual contact and having multiple sexual partners  increases  the risk of getting HIV, prevalence of multiple partnership  among youth is still high more males especially those of 20-24  than females reported sex with more than one partner in the past 12 month,

Sexual negotiation   skills ,It is generally known that in Tanzania ,like in  many other  African societies, the right of women within a sexual relationship are low, some girls/women have been forced into having sex. while exchanging  sex for money or gift was also common in the study area, The fact that female are more likely to received money or gift for sex might reduce their negotiating power in sexual relations which, negotiating power in sexual relations which can also be translated  to the women’s, inability to negotiated  condom use for safe sex. though a fairly large percentage  of female reported that it is possible for a women to negotiate condom use with a man .who is not her husband  for only a small percentage of female had actually  succeeded in negotiating condom use,

The impact  of HIV/AIDS to  children .At the end of 2001 there were over 13.4 million children orphaned by HIV/AIDS in the world  with “orphan” defined  as a child under the age of 15 who has lost one or both parents in this case due to HIV/AIDS over 11 million of these were  in Africa .The global figure are estimated to grow to 24 million by 2010(UNAID,UNICEF,USAID2002)

Children orphaned by AIDS  are  vulnerable in almost  all aspect of their lives(Haworth and kalumba 1991,foster et all 1995,foster et all 1997) invariably, witness the prolonged illness and death of one or more families member and suffer mental distress as a result. some of the many  challenges faced  by orphans  are loss of family depression increased malnutrition ,lack of in heritance through(property  grabbing) homeless early  marriage ,exposure to abuse  and  increase  risk of HIV/AIDS(hunter and Williamson 1997)

Main problems  facing orphan were  inadequate  shelter inability to pay for school fees and  supplies lack of bedding, clothing  and  medical  care and  burden  of having to care for younger  sibling (shuey at al 1996 Research  in Tanzania ) found  higher  rates  of malnutrition  in orphans compared to non-orphans

HIV-positive  parents experience  psychosocial  distress because  of uncertainty  about their children’s future ,children also experience  psychosocial distress about  their future, which may be manifested by depression or behavioral  problems at school (hunter and Williamson 1997)

The well-being of all children affected by AIDS depend in great part on the capacity of the community to support families  and raised then “ the first and most important responses to the problems caused by HIV/AIDS come from the affected children .Families and communities themselves. (The effort of government Ngos   and donors are significant largely to the extent that they help children, families and communities cope more easily with these problems)

Most African culture  are characterized by strong family and social support system in times of need within this  system children who lose their parents are typically  taken in by a relative such as an Uncle or Aunt  as has been the pattern in East Africa. However  as the  prevalence of HIV increases and  the number of orphans grows this system is being challenged. Although  most experts do not believe  that the African family structure has ‘collapsed” .Under the weight of AIDS thee is no doubt that care giver are increasingly burdened some adults refused to take in orphans ,while other continue to take them in despite their own poverty, orphans find  themselves  belonging to a house hold headed  by elderly grandparent with no source of income, or by an older sibling under the age of 18

Children  whose  living with       HIV/AIDS tell are story about stigma