TORORO – Tororo district local government in partnership with Plan International Uganda has launched a campaign that gears towards protecting women and girls’ from gender-based inequality.
The five-year girls’ rights and equality drive dubbed ‘’Girls get equal’’ is part of the district’s commitment to Elimination of all forms of discrimination against girls and young women so as to achieve the sustainable development goals where gender equality by 2030 requires urgent action to eliminate the many root causes of gender discrimination.
During the campaign launch held at the Children’s Lions Park in Tororo municipality on Friday, the Tororo municipality mayor Mr. John Opio thanked Plan International for the initiatives it has had to create favourable atmosphere to the growth of girl children adding that as leaders they will build on the innovations to act against any form of girl’s rights violation.
He said as leaders they will commit to the girls call for actions adding that the campaign that will go a long way to advance children’s’ rights and equality for girls and women in the district by making sure that resources are allocated to address critical issues that pose to be barriers to the growth of girl children.
Mr. Opio also disclosed that as part of the commitment, the district and the municipal council will make efforts to strengthen school monitoring and supervision to ensure that such institutions do not hub barriers that may frustrate girl children from attending classes and that they will expedite the implementation of ‘’end the child marriage ordinance’’ that district recently approved and produce special reports on the progress.
The principal Assistant Chief Administrative officer while giving the keynote address appealed to government to consider rolling out the establishment of community information systems to help local government track information on violation of girl child rights as well as violence against women.
He said currently Tororo as a district does not have accurate statistics and where there are no statistics, it had to measure the magnitude of the vice guide planning.
He said in Tororo, the only source of information is police that he said are sometimes not accurate enough to base because not all cases are reported to police.
However, Plan International Uganda Tororo the Area manager Zaituna Asio disclosed that the campaign demands to reverse the status quo of young women and girls.
She said the campaign will offer a real opportunity to drive lasting change for girl’s rights and equality and bring transformative change not only for girl’s but contribute holistically to national development.
She thanked religious and cultural leaders who have passionately condemned discrimination against women and girls.
