Ugandan Government Takes Action as World Vision Presents Child Abuse Report

World Vision has received a request to present the findings of its Our Future in Their Hands report to the Ugandan parliamentary forum for children.

The report, which reveals that displaced children in the Great Lakes Region are at risk of "gruesome" neglect and sexual abuse, moved the Ugandan government to action.

Furthermore, the study highlights the fact that millions of children displaced inside their own countries are trapped in camps and facing inhuman living conditions, exploitation through child labour and military conscription.

A survey also showed that 50 per cent of children in camps in four of the Great Lake countries have suffered some form of sexual abuse.

"So soon after the report's launch, we were thrilled that the Ugandan parliament responded so positively," World Vision's East Africa Communications Specialist Geoffrey Denye Kalebbo.

"We received a call from the Ugandan parliamentary forum for children asking us to present the findings of the report to their fellow parliamentarians.

"We are excited to have this opportunity to bring the voices of children to Uganda's decision-makers and we appeal to the other Great Lakes' governments to follow suit."

The report was a result of research carried out by the humanitarian agency World Vision in Uganda, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi, and shines a spotlight on what it calls, "the gruesome situation of displaced children in Africa's Great Lakes Region".

In addition, the report includes recommendations for a range of decision-makers in governments, NGOs, UN agencies and donors on how to improve the lives of these children.

World Vision currently has a voluntary membership of 100 Members of Parliament focusing on child rights.