On April 26, Save the Children launched its campaign, Every Last Child. The campaign is part of Save the Children’s global drive to reach the most marginalised children in the world. In Uganda, we want to reach children living in remote areas who have, so far, been left by the wayside in the country’s journey to development.
Fifteen-year-old Grace lives in a village in northern Uganda. Grace had a dream. She wanted to become a doctor when she grew up. Sadly, this dream will remain just that – a dream. At just 14 years old, Grace was married off and is now pregnant with her first child.
Uganda has made significant progress in improving children’s welfare in the last few years, but the figures showing this progress hide a grim reality – there are thousands of children who have not felt the impact of this progress. Many of them because of where they live, and others because of who they are.
The chances of surviving to just five years old, of being able to go to school and of being protected from negative social norms such as child marriage vary significantly according to where in Uganda a child happens to be born. Children living in remote areas have some of the highest levels of deprivation.
They are less likely to survive, learn and be protected than those living in urban areas. Girls are at a further disadvantage, particularly in remote areas, where they play second fiddle to boys and are considered later, if at all, in the choice of whom to send to school. When they don’t go to school, too often, they are married off in exchange for a few head of cattle or some other property.
Although nationally, the rate of child marriage is declining, in northern Uganda the chances of a girl between the ages of 15 and 17 getting married, are actually increasing. When it comes to education, the number, accessibility and quality of schools vary significantly between regions. In Karamoja and northern Uganda, less than one in every 10 children attend secondary school.
In the Rwenzori sub-region, western Uganda, some pregnant women cannot get to health centres without walking, or, more likely, being carried, for up to 40 kilometres through mountainous terrain. Often, therefore, they resort to giving birth with traditional birth attendants living nearby, putting their own lives and those of their babies at risk.
Which children survive or die, learn or don’t, is no accident. It is a result of decisions made that exclude some groups of children, while allowing others to flourish. Reversing these decisions is within our power as a nation.
In 2015, world leaders, including Uganda’s, agreed to a new set of Global Goals, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These goals give the world shared targets to end poverty once and for all. In agreeing to the goals, world leaders promised to ‘leave no-one behind’. Save the Children shares these ambitions and applauds those leaders who pushed for bold commitments. But we know that these goals can’t be achieved without ending inequality and exclusion; without reaching those children that the world has so far chosen to forget.
Grace’s story, and that of thousands of other children like her in Uganda, is not new. But we have grown used to these stories. We have forgotten or just become fatigued by tales of the challenges that so many children in Uganda face, and have carried on with our lives. This should not be the case.
Government, donors, civil society, communities, you and me – wake up to this reality. Let us not accept that children dying prematurely, not going to school and marrying at 14 in some parts of Uganda is normal. Let us remember each and every child, no matter where they live, or who they are.
Ms Burroughs is the country director, Save the Children
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