Lobby raises alarm over high number of dropouts in Wajir

Save the Children has raised concern over the large number of children who are out of school in Wajir.

Wajir coordinator of Children’s Services Jillo Roba said about 150,000 children out of 492,000 are not attending school.

He spoke during the opening of a three-day child protection awareness workshop at a Wajir hotel on Monday.

Roba called on all stakeholders to come up with mechanisms to address the poor enrollment.

He said stakeholders should share, learn, document and adopt best practices in children case management and referral guidelines.

“It is our moral duty to protect the children and put their best interests first,” Roba said.

"All of us are actors in the child protection script, since we cannot handle children’s matters single handedly whether as parents at home or teachers at school."

Director of strategic intervention for children in emergencies at the department of Children’s Services Philip Nzenge lauded the support of non-governmental organisations in children’s services.

Nzenge said it is important to put the welfare of children at the forefront of drought mitigation measures.

“It’s important to highlight the plight of children in terms of lack of food, school dropouts, early marriage, child labour as issues of child protection, to enable and facilitate intervention during emergencies,” he said.

The official further said there is need for state and non-state actors to collaborate and address the challenges of child protection.

“Child protection is a collective responsibility for all. There is need to address the concern of adopting services to the nomadic communities in Northeastern counties,” he said.

Nzenge said there is need for flexibility in crucial services like education and health to the migrating communities in times of drought.

“We as human beings are interdependent and vulnerable. There is need to standardise and harmonise child protection," he said.

This, he says, can be done through sharing of knowledge, experiences and creating a synergy to strengthen collaboration among child protection networks.

"The awareness on the need for children’s protection is aimed at mitigating the drought situation being experienced in the region," Nzenge said.

The project has various components including livelihood elevation, which fall under child protection issues.

NDMA and Save the Children through the food security and cash transfer component aims to disburse Sh146 million to 8,200 Wajir households for three months.

(Edited by Bilha Makokha)