12 May 2013

BONELA would like to be part of a better future for children through the Children’s Rights Project, according to the organisation's executive director, Mr Uyapo Ndadi.

Launching the Children’s Rights Project on Friday, Mr Ndadi said children were the present and the future and their future was secured or lost by actions or inactions of today.

He said reversing the HIV and AIDS tide could best be achieved by ensuring that children were born free of HIV and remained as such. Mr Ndadi pointed out that in 2011, BONELA reviewed its strategic direction, something which led to birth of the 2012-2016 strategic plan .

Through the strategy, BONELA network focused on interventions that sought to protect and advocate for the rights of vulnerable and marginalised populations.

He noted that the vulnerabilities could be based on age, health, socio-economic status, geographical area or gender while marginalisation could be as a result of laws, sexual orientation or identities, saying these populations had been identified as the most at risk communities the world over.

Mr Ndadi said it was apparent that children today were vulnerable to contracting HIV, some were born with it and parents grappled with how and when to tell them. He noted that as they grew, especially when they began to date, the children had to be equipped to deal with their peculiar reality.

He pointed out that they were disturbed by cases of sexual abuse of children at the hands of people who were supposedly their role models and guardians.

He stated that BONELA entered in to a partnership with Save the Children Sweden in 2012 with the view to strengthen cvil society organization’s capacity to increasingly hold the government and other duty bearers accountable to prevent and respond to child right’s violations, including implementation of United Nation Convention on the Rights of the Child, amongst others.

He explained that the project aime at increasing collaboration, building coalitions and networks as well as increasing capacities of partners to identify violations against children, among others. ENDS