There are at least 2.2 billion children in the world today. Millions of those children are in Africa.
These children are so precious and innocent. So undeserving of the pain that often comes their way, especially if they are orphaned and vulnerable. For many of these children, that pain begins right at birth, at the very moment they enter this world.
A UNICEF Report that analysed the State of the World’s Children revealed that the world’s poorest children are almost three times less likely than the richest ones to have a skilled attendant at their birth.
Think about that – Disadvantaged children face vulnerability from the moment they take their first breaths. Apart from lack of expert care, many are not even registered at birth. Legally speaking, its as if they haven’t even been born. In a country like Ethiopia, only ten percent of the poorest children are registered at birth, a scenario that repeats itself across Africa.
The situation gets even bleaker. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 78 out of every 1,000 children born never make it to the age of five.
Ladies and gentlemen, that proves how child welfare is a life and death issue.
For those disadvantaged children who make it beyond the age of five, their challenges and pain linger on. In a country like Ethiopia, only 16 percent of rural households have access to clean drinking water compared with 76% of urban households. That means that most of children in such areas don’t even have clean water to drink.
Many of these children do not even get the respite of education. UNESCO reports that over a fifth of African children between the ages of 6-11 are out of school. This begs the question – if they are not in school, where are they? You can be sure that they are not just at home eating chocolate and relaxing. Many of them are working, engaged in jobs that exploit them.
The International Labour Organization reports that one-fifth of all African children are involved in child labour, a proportion more than twice as high as in any other region. Let me repeat that statement and as I do so, remember that but for grace, your child could have been in that one fifth.
One-fifth of all African children are involved in child labour, a proportion more than twice as high as in any other region. In addition, nine per cent of African children are in hazardous work, again highest of all the world’s regions. How tragic.
But even more tragic, in West Africa, an estimated 35,000 children are in commercial sexual exploitation. This mirrors the situation in other African regions, including out own East Africa. The situation may not be as tragic but one child mired in commercial sexual exploitation is one child too many.
You may wonder why I have chosen to begin my speech with this tragic information.
It is because I want to remind us all of the unbearable pain that vulnerable children go through every single day.
But all is not lost because of individuals and organizations that rightfully go out of their ways to ensure that child welfare and protection grows in intensity.
Little Angels Network is one such organization. Their kinship program is changing the lives of hundreds of children by re-integrating them into families. This gives them much more than a roof over their heads.
We many not be able to bring back the parents of orphaned children but we can immerse them into caring families, which is what the kinship project is all about. We may not be able to instantly transform the plight of living parents who are unable or unwilling to care for their children but we can transform the plight of those children. That is what this kinship program is about.
You have already heard from Susan and Dr Musiime, the CEO and Chairperson of Little Angels respectively about the details and vision of the kinship program.
I will not repeat what they have already said but I will definitely stress the absolute importance of the kinship program.
Ladies and gentlemen, reintegrating children into their families or close family friends is one of the most sustainable ways of caring for the vulnerable children in our midst.
Through the kinship program, we have a chance to wipe away the bleak picture that I painted in the first half of my speech. We may not erase the entire picture, but we can and should erase as much of it as we can.
The kinship program gives us a chance to do so.
I urge you all to support it not just today, but also in the near and distant future.
Thank you.
May God Bless you and Bless all the children who have brought us here today.
