VIDEO: Government commits 3.5 billion shillings in fight against rising number of street children

The Ministry of Gender, Labour and Culture has secured a supplementary budget of 3.5 billion shillings to facilitate the education of street children.

Minister of State for Gender and Culture Peace Mutuzo said the money is aimed putting children who have ended up on the street into school following the failure of initial interventions of just taking them back home.

Some of the money is to be used to build boarding sections in schools in Karamoja and the nearby districts where most of the street children come from.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRKMbReP6JE

Peace Mutuzo, the Gender state minister, explained that they had decided on this strategy to ensure the children are skilled.

Mutuzo added it has been already decided that every financial year money be put aside for the facilitation of these children.

A recent report by Retrak Uganda and Dwelling Places in 2017- 2018 carried out in the districts of Mbale, Kampala, Iganga and Jinja showed more 150,000 children live on the streets.

This plan is going to see schools in Soroti, Kalamoja, have boarding sections which will accommodate these children not let them out until they make 18 years to decide for themselves their future.

The ministry's announcement comes days after NBS Television run an investigative piece that showed a mother sell her daughters in Arapai market in Soroti at a fee of fifty thousand shillings without even inquiring where her children would end up or who was taking them.