Integrity

This week was dominated by a three-day “safeguarding deep dive” led by CRANE for member organisations. I attended and helped to facilitate the sessions, which focused on a practical introduction and guide to best practice for safeguarding in multiple contexts.

It was sobering to see how low the level of understanding around child protection was in Uganda – especially given that the formal institutions in the country are so poorly equipped to deal with any concerns or incidents. The burden is very much on the primary contact or first level institution, for example a school setting. Ideas that from my perspective may be obvious are simply not common over here; for example, the importance of not promising a child confidentiality during a disclosure.

It was encouraging though to see the level of commitment that those attending had to protecting the children in their care. While there was plenty of new information and concepts, their was a real sense that they would each take back what they learned and improve the policies and procedures at their place of work.

I reflected this week on the value of integrity. It is so important when working with children to ensure that their protection is at the forefront of everything you do, and this takes constant integrity. While the culture in Uganda is catching up in terms of widespread awareness of child protection, this attitude is spreading. Improved systems and new perspectives will keep vulnerable people safer, and exhibiting integrity is all part of fostering a healthy and safe culture.

While less directly linked to integrity, the other two days of my week were spent painting gates at the school where I am based. Revamping the fairly colourless compound is a key goal, to make the children feel welcome and to help the school live up to its name, “House of Joy”. We are also pushing for the site to be maintained more rigorously – for example by ensuring the compound is always clear of litter, in particular broken glass and batteries which have been found recently. It was also saddening when later in my LiA, three school staff lost their jobs for their parts in a burglary at the school, stealing the main safe. While undoubtedly motivated by poverty, it was sad to see how this could easily have affected the wellbeing of the students, and the money available to pay teachers, had the perpetrators not been caught.