Neno children demand rights

By Vyalema Kaluluma-Phiri:

Children from Neno District have decried harmful cultural practices, poverty, poor state of roads and bridges as some of the factors fuelling child rights abuses in the Southern Region district.

They made the observation during the third session of Children’s Parliament Monday.

Neno Speaker of Children’s Parliament, Triphonia Kaduya, asked stakeholders to bring to an end practices such as kusasa fumbi [sexual cleansing], kugonana pa chibale [incest] and fisi [hyena], which are said to be rampant.

Kaduna lauded the government for addressing some of the concerns the children raised during last year’s session.

“When we come here, we report our problems and, at the same time, come up with resolutions. During last year’s session, we asked the government to address the problem of early marriages and, as I am speaking, things have changed because there are by-laws and stiff punishments meted out to perpetrators,” Kaduya said.

Neno District Commissioner, Ali Phiri, admitted that the district lacks some social amenities, but pledged to take up the concerns the children raised.

“This is an advocacy platform where children bring out issues of concern and we have seen a lot of issues being brought out.

“However, our resource envelop is the major impediment to satisfaction of demands the children make. We, therefore, join the children in asking partners for support so that we can deal with the issues raised,” Phiri said.

Meanwhile, Save the Children Child Rights Governance Programme Manager, Donnex Bengo, said it is through such podia that children’s views are taken into account, in line with Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Neno Children’s Parliament was held under the theme ‘Children’s Parliament: The Platform for Amplifying Children’s Voice’.