Our Stories/Child Protection

Child participation: Children voice needs to headed

Tony was 9 years old and lived with his grandmother, he had a chicken called *Inkoko in Kinyarwanda language. He loved this chicken and was so proud of it because it was his very own chicken. His grandmother knew that the chicken belonged to him but one day, when he was at school, she slaughtered the chicken for food without asking Tony’s permission.

Tony was very upset because of the love he had for the chicken but he knew that when children had problems about their rights not being respected they should go and seek help from the staff at Lawyers of Hope. A short while later, LOH was running a legal advice session in Tony’s village and he went to seek some legal advice over the fate of Inkoko.

He had argued with his grandmother about the chicken and a short time afterwards stopped going to school for an entire year and also ran away from home.

Everyone in that village was using him to carry heavy things so that he may get food and money to buy another chicken. The lawyer and project coordinator from Lawyers of Hope got in touch with the child protection committee in Tony’s area and together they went to Tony’s house to talk to his grandmother. It was revealed then that Tony had stolen money from one of his neighbours in order to buy another chicken. Tony refused to return to school or to live with his grandmother until he had a new chicken

Eventually through the intervention of child protection committees and the Lawyers of Hope team the grandmother bought a new chicken. After 3 months of negotiations Tony returned to live with her and he also influenced other children to return to school and owing to the successful community sensitisation on child labour carried out by the team the people using Tony to carry heavy things stopped! Today Tony is back at school with his friends!

A chicken may not seem like a big issue but this chicken was all the property that Tony had and it was his friend losing it was a very heart breaking and shock to him. LOH works closely with Child protection committee to make sure that children like Tony are aware of their rights as individuals and how they can protect them. They also work alongside local leaders to make sure that children attend school and have a good home to live in. There are many people who through the project have learnt to value the rights of children. Communities can now work more closely to make sure that everyone is given equal respect regardless of age.

This story had a happy ending for all involved but there are still many children who are not aware of their rights and are subject to more serious forms of child abuse than that suffered by Tony and because of this Lawyers of Hope will continue to work towards developing communities that are conscious of children’s rights.

Part II

After all the suffering that Tony endured over the chicken, he went back to school and subsequently visited several times by LOH project coordinator to ensure that Tony was attending school every day. The report given to LOH from the school is that Tony has become a good pupil in the class. Tony’s new chicken grew up and produced lots of eggs which made him happy but when he went to school his grandmother started to taking some eggs to boil for the meal without tony’s permission again. When Toni discovered that his eggs are missing, he came to seek help from the project Child protection committees. And what advocacy is being done here, is to give children space and hear about their wishes as their right of participation. Sadly the chicken were stolen after sometime but now Tony is still going to school and living with his grandmother.

"The names of the people and chickens that feature in this story have been changed to protect client’s confidentiality"