Because I'm a CP Social Worker...

Young mom and tot.

Children the world over are, in my opinion, super hilarious, adorable, and can be capable of so much more than people often give them credit for. Children in Uganda are no exception; however, the cultural context within which children live in Uganda is really very different than that of those who live in Canada. First, it's hard to guess at a child's age because many are very small for their age, likely due to malnutrition and other prenatal factors. You do get your cute, fat little babies wandering about with very serious expressions on their faces. You can just see them try to puzzle out what is so unusual about the Mzungu standing in front of them! The CP worker in me has found it a bit of a strange experience to see first-hand and hear about how children live and are sometimes treated in various parts of Uganda.

This ingenious kid fashioned a backpack for collecting bottles that also doubled as hooded rainwear out of a plastic bag!

On One Hand:
 
Children seem to be given a number of tasks and responsibilities at an early age, particularly those who live in the villages - older siblings (but not much older) are caretakers of younger siblings and sometimes are expected to stay home from school to do this. Young kids are cooking, cleaning, sewing, digging in the garden for hours, and fetching water. Are these expectations and responsibilities a product of high levels of poverty? Probably. Back home in Vancouver, similar tasks are given to kids to teach them certain skills and are carefully supervised (or are supposed to be!) by adults. In British Columbian CP terms, corporal punishment, exploitation of children by guardians/parents (the 'business' of begging, as I've been told, and early marriages), parentification of children, murder (child sacrifices), and other various issues and forms of abuse seem to be fairly prevalent. There is a limited child protection system that I've been able to figure out - issues can be brought to appropriate authorities. Where it goes from there, I have no idea at this time. There has been a recent campaign to promote child rights and I've seen a bunch of posters that exclaim "Stop Child Sacrifices!" and urging people to "Protect the Children!" but issues regarding children seem to be very much under the domain of 'private family issues'. There does seem to be some increasing public discussion about it, though. I saw one kind of hilarious (to me) poster that depicted various abuses done to children that should be stopped. It was sort of hilarious in that way that makes you want to groan and say, "are you SERIOUS?!" because of the statements on the poster, which included: "stop defilement (incest, from what I can gather)!", "stop touching children's private parts" and my favourite -- "stop over-beating children!". I mean, I think it's totally great that there have been recent movements in this area and workplace policies regarding child protection issues have been drafted, but it does sometimes take me a moment to readjust to where I am.

I've had some conversations with a few colleagues who've asked me what I do in Canada. When I told them, I got a few interesting responses including some bafflement. The first few times I was asked about my job, I had assumed there would be some understanding of what it was I did but I was wrong (I'll admit, this assumption was based on how ubiquitous those posters seemed!!). Among some other responses, I was asked whether I was a police officer (no), I was asked what issues children in Canada could possibly be affected by (a lot), and I was asked what kind of issues parents in Canada had to deal with (also, a lot). I'm not trying to compare contexts or situations; but problems and issues that children face in whatever country they live in are still problems and issues. And while the posters are a good start, where can it go next?

On the Other Hand:

Playing a version of "Ring around a rosy"

Children do seem to take care of each other, often without any prompting or asking. Kids also still do the child-type things that one would expect them to do: skip rope, play soccer, and make up very strange games. One recent game, (it turns out I WAS the game) consisted of 2 very tiny toddlers running after me as I was walking home and trying to touch my legs. This resulted in them tumbling over often and laughing and was apparently highly entertaining to the small group of children watching. Like most children in my experience, most here seem quick to laugh and to try to show off. Children roam around seemingly unattended, but more often than not, I've seen other adults step in and help young kids or other parents out (even those whom I'm SURE have just met the family. I wonder if the 'stranger danger' phase is shorter here than at home?). Parents bring their kids to work (I've only seen a couple of daycares and I don't know how common using daycares might be) pretty often where they run around and do random things and entertain and are entertained by their parents' coworkers. The whole "it takes a village to raise a child" adage does come to mind and it's pretty neat to actually see it happen sometimes.

Now, to reconcile the two hands....