In a move to improve child protection services in Arua city, the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs, in collaboration with the Save the Children Initiative, has donated nine motorcycles. These motorcycles aim to facilitate the prompt response to cases of child abuse and domestic violence.
City leaders in Arua expressed their gratitude to Japan for this donation, emphasizing its significance in addressing the transportation gap and improving service delivery. Jobile Cornelius, the deputy town clerk, and Sam Nyakua, the city mayor, noted that the donation comes at a crucial time to fill the transportation void within the city.
Jobile Cornelius mentioned, “While we have probation officers based at division level, the coverage of the city is quite enormous. It was practically difficult to reach every cell of the city. The personnel handling child-related issues were overwhelmed because we have a huge gap in terms of transport. We have departments without a single motorcycle as we have not done asset-sharing with the district for most of the movable assets; they are still held at the district.”
Nyakua added, “There has been a huge gap because when we were declared a city, the only resources we have are from the former Arua Municipality. Departments whose work is field-based could not operate effectively due to the lack of transportation.”
Pascal Freeman, the regional area manager of Save the Children, explained that the donation was prompted by a surge in cases of teenage pregnancies, domestic violence, child abuse, child labor, school dropout, child abandonment, and failure to provide. He stated, “This is in line with the findings of the state of protection within the city and the district. Teenage pregnancies are on the rise, indicating that children are experiencing abuse and violence. We want to respond to these issues promptly.”
In addition to the motorcycles, the donation includes the recruitment of officers to strengthen the city’s human resources dedicated to child protection. These officers will help prevent, respond to, and protect children from various forms of abuse.
Jobile Cornelius highlighted, “The project is going to recruit nine social protection officers who will be based at the former sub-counties. This will enhance easy reporting because these project staff will provide our probation office with information about child protection services.”
Arua City Council, under the department of community services, is responsible for maintaining the motorcycles. They will ensure adequate budget allocation for servicing and other logistical support.
The town clerk of Arua emphasized the importance of responsible use of the motorcycles, stating, “We have a standing order provision that will apply to every movable asset assigned to a particular officer, so we will invoke that provision when we discover that somebody is misusing it.”
