Celebrating The International Day For The Girl Child: A well consolidated plan and integral strategy to empower men to create an enabling environment that addresses the global concern of protecting the rights of the marginalized Girl Child.

If you were to ponder over or cognitively think about any human creature that has been a subject to all forms of oppression in the global society for many centuries, you would conclude that it’s the girl child and women as well that have been significantly hit and afflicted by oppressors in our sophisticated society. It’s quite evident that the root cause of this flaw tearing the female being is known to each one of us since the origin of life. If the human race was programmed to conceal the truth, l will never subscribe to this barbaric notion and mystery, but rather rationally choose to dwell on the practical truth as l underscore that though other factors are apparently fueling the marginalization of the girl child, to a greater extent, men are the instigators of Gender Based Violence, all forms of oppression and marginalization of the girl child and women all over the world.

It’s more likely that a predominant group of people will have a different perspective on the detrimental and peevish state of the girl child in the society, they will find it thoughtful to adhere to the following convictions and interrogative arguments, and it’s absolutely right to have different versions of thoughts;
👉Isn’t it the ingrained beliefs of our rigid cultures?
👉Isn’t it the poor education systems that rarely prioritize girl child education?
👉Isn’t it the laxity of the policy makers to amend and refine policies that protect the rights of the girl child and women as well?
👉Or could it be the result of poor governance and inefficiencies of the judicial systems in enforcing the rule of law to deal with the perpetrators of the girl child oppression?
👉Or the growing outcry could be linked to lack of a well consolidated information flow model to create public awareness about the threats exposed to girls and women, especially in the remotest parts of the world, or hard to reach areas? In any way whatsoever, it’s a pool of questions that seek our corporate intervention.

Girls are victims of all forms of violence; the psychological, physical, social and emotional violence and their life and health is at a gross risk, they are always a target group to many perpetrators clogging and roaming around their households and communities. They are victimized in a number of ways; they are tortured, trafficked, enslaved, forced into child labor, coerced into early marriage, sexually harassed, and as a result, they may either sustain severe physical and mental injuries, conceive, contract HIV or suffer from permanent disorders and underlying health conditions at such a tender age.

Covid-19 has amplified dehumanization and pervasive behaviors in our society while girls stand at higher risk compared to their counterparts the boys.
In underdeveloped countries severely hit by Covid-19, the response plans of governments to confine people as strategy to neutralize the shocks of the global pandemic has escalated the number of teenage pregnancy, since girls were in the proximity and would easily be snooped by their perpetrators in the community.

A case study of Uganda, over 2000 girls from Eastern region are currently depressed and experiencing an emotional aura, they no longer have any assurance to go back to school and re-embark on their normal learning programs upon reopening of schools on October 15 2020 following the government’s approval to ease the lockdown and to allow resumption of learning, they were reported to have conceived within the 6 months of lockdown from March. Worse still, the media houses affirm that many of the afflicted girls have been diagnosed with HIV. In Uganda, we speculate that less than 25% of the victims of teenage pregnancy during this current adversity will hardly gain the momentum to complete their learning trajectory!

Global statistics show that at least one in five women has ever been sexually exploited. Despite launching several interventions from different key players advocating for girl child and women empowerment, the trend at which girls are victimized is scaling up in the society. Why do you think this is the case? One may think that the response plan of most of the activists for women and girl child empowerment focuses on addressing the post impacts and outcomes of girl child exploitation without reminiscing the root cause and centralizing the efforts to uproot this vice from the society before it propagates and triggers regrettable outcomes.

The bottom line is that three out of four of the culprits destabilizing the society and ruining the livelihood of the feminine gender have always been men as per criminal records and statistics on Girl child exploitation and Gender Based Violence. Since the efforts of the global community to remedy and suppress this impasse is still futile, it’s now pertinent to reverse the challenge by adapting a new winning strategy. This calls for lush investment into programs that bring men on board and empower them to champion the movement against girl child exploitation.

What does Situka Alliance Initiative (SAI) do in the limelight to spearhead this ideological transition to deal with the underlying challenges and appease the storm quaking our girls?
At Situka Alliance Initiative Uganda, the biggest chunk of our work and interventions is centred on male empowerment and behavior change, building their capacity to unlock their masculine potential to foster change of their communities through expression of positive masculinities in their households and ensuring that they proactively engage in programs that create a sense of inclusion and masculine responsibility to dignify and restore the status of girls or females in the society.

How do we realize our goal? We create public awareness through different platforms both virtually and in a physical setting with intent upon seeking community support to address the challenges afflicting the girl child and women. We earnestly ask communities and households to entrust us with men for training on a rotational program. We schedule a 2 weeks training session for each community. All the modules align with our goals that give precedence to the importance of men in enforcing gender parity, promotion and protection of the rights of women and the girl child as well as being the iconic agents in restoring harmony in their communities. We also share our patents and insights about the importance of male involvement in matters of child and maternal reproductive health as well as tackling business topics to equip men with financial skills that are critical in improving their household income.

We have a network of more than 20 well trained personnel from different fields such as health, social sciences, psychology and education whom we contract on a probono hiring plan to complement our fast paced staff to traverse different communities. The team undertakes the indispensable role of training a cohort of male groups in matters of gender disparities and the significance of protecting the rights of women and girl child in a diversity of communities in both urban and rural setting.