Evaluate the role of FBOs of child protection in less resourced countries.

Child protection is a cause for concern in less developed countries. It deals with issues that are
sensitive, sometimes stigmatizing and often hidden such as domestic violence and sexual abuse,
and it also deals with violations that are often socially accepted or even authorized by the state
for instance corporal punishment. Successful child protection work starts off with prevention and
seeks to address the root causes of children`s vulnerability such as poverty, gender and other
forms of discrimination, power imbalances between adults and children as well as violence in
society and social acceptance of certain types of violence such as child labor. Hence, Faith Based
Organisations which are entities associated with or inspired by religion or religious beliefs have
stepped up to ensure that children across the globe are protected as they should be especially
those in less resourced countries. FBOs tend to grow from and build on faith communities` belief
that they have a moral imperative to help those in need and improve the human condition. This
essays serves to highlight the role of FBOs in ensuring child protection in less resourced or
developing countries.

According to the UNICEF preliminary summary report, FBOs provide a broad range of
community-based services to the vulnerable and marginalized groups such as women and
children, orphans, the elderly among others. Services offered range from health and wellbeing to
income generation and protection of children`s rights through recognizing sustainable
development goals that align with the subject matter. FBOs are unique in that, compared with
secular organizations, they exist in many remote areas in developing countries and stay there for
long stretches of time, often spanning many decades. According to Bertram (2014), FBOs
provide approximately 40% of health care and educational services in many developing
countries. Acquiring educational services is a big challenge in developing countries especially
for the girl child. Bertram (2014) also alludes that girls are often made to drop out of school at a
young age due to financial constraints and economic hardships and this makes them susceptible
to various GBV practices such as child marriages and forced marriages. In Zimbabwe, efforts of
the government to ensure equal educational opportunities for all are in vain as evidence by the
failure of the Basic Education Assistance Model which had been developed to cushion families
which could not afford to pay for their children. However, due to lack of transparency and late
disbursement of funds, a lot to beneficiaries ended up dropping out of school, (Zimbabwe
National Statistics Agency 2012). Henceforth, FBOs emerge in such scenarios which the sole
purpose on ensuring that these girl children get equal opportunities in the academic spectrum
which in turn enables them to be independent and self-sustainable.

Moving forward, FBOs also recognize the need to protect children as far as GBV is concerned.
GBV against children is often perpetrated in every form that is physical, sexual, emotional and
economic violence regardless of their sex. However, a research by Wekwete et al. (2012)
maintained that women and girls were at a higher risk of experiencing violence compared to men
and boys be it in developed or less developed countries. It can be noted that the existence of
government policies such as the Domestic Violence act in Zimbabwe did not stop or reduce the
rampancy of the violence. Hence forth, the introduction of shelters was brought in to play where
children experiencing excessive abuse can reside whilst justice takes its toll upon the perpetrator.
It is at these shelters that the children are offered psychosocial support services to enable them to
go back into the society without any challenges.

In Kenya on the International Day of the Child, 16th June 2007, an FBO known as Religions for
Peace condemned the rising incidents of sexual and other forms of violence against children.
They called on all Kenyans to take action to protect children from all forms of violence and
abuse, (Inter-Religious Council of Kenya 2007). The FBOs therefore are a safe haven for these
child survivors of GBV offering psychosocial support as well as economic strengthening
capacities through introducing income generating projects for children who are grown enough to
partake them, (Manatsa 2018). Child protection actors and religious leaders have carried out
some very effective advocacy on child protection, and child protection actors have helped
religious communities build their community level capacity to promote and respond to child
protection issues effectively. There are various examples of child protection actors engaging
effectively with religious communities and supporting the activation of their structures for
psychosocial care and support services, (Robinson 2010).

Furthermore, it may not be disputed that in less resourced countries, due to high poverty rates
there are occurrences of child labour. In 2007, the Government of Zimbabwe carried out a survey
to find out about the scope and breadth of child labour in the country. The survey noted that 46%
and 42% of children aged 5-17 years and 5-14 years respectively were involved in economic
activities 7 days prior to the survey, (Chibwana 2014). According to Article 15 of the African
Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, Children should be protected from all forms of
economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to
interfere with their physical, mental, spiritual, moral, or social development. It can be noted that
the recruitment of children as child laborers infringes this right.

In addition, the International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that number of working
children are about 250 million in the developing countries, of whom at least 120 million are
working full time, (Naeem et al 2011) with the greater percentage of these children being forced
by poverty. In light of this, the efforts of FBOs in providing sustainable livelihoods for
disadvantaged communities cannot be ignored. They do this through distribution of food items as
well as non-food items to vulnerable groups with assistance from the social department. Food
items often include basic commodities such as mealie meal to ensure that no one sleeps on an
empty stomach. Non-food items include sanitary for the girls, soaps and other hygiene kits.
Distribution of such may reduce the number of child labourers as families would be receiving
what the children would have been working for. Faith Based Organisations also deal with this
predicament of child labour by introducing IGPs to communities such as goat rearing and sewing
in the bid to create employment and generate income. An example can be given of an FBO,
Family AIDS Caring Trust in Zimbabwe which has seen to it that women indulge in self-
development projects so as to obtain sustainable livelihoods for them and their families to
prevent child labour, (UNFPA report 2017).

Furthermore, Article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child states that every child has
the right to highest attainable standard of health and access to adequate nutritious foods, clean
drinking water, pollution free environment and preventive and curative health care services,
(Gordon et al 2003). These have proved to be difficult to access in less resourced countries due
to economic hardships. As a result, FBOs decentralize the availability of these services by
conducting campaigns and outreaches whereby they reach every corner of their chosen area of
operation with services. An example can be given of HIV/AIDs testing outreaches and provision
of sexual reproductive health (SRH) services. These were conducted in the greater parts of sub-
saharan Africa by FBOs to ensure that every child who had been exposed to the virus whether by
birth or by other means was placed on ART. It can be noted that HIV/AIDS resulted into the
emergence of child headed and grandparents headed households in developing countries which
in turn affects the child`s growth due to the burden of care automatically placed on them.

This can be further compounded by Godia et al (2014) `s assertion that the provision of SRH
services to young people in Kenya is mainly done via three types of service providers: Public or
Ministry of Health Managed Services, Non-Governmental Organisations and Faith Based
Organisations (FBO). To add on, in Tanzania, there are three FBOs that have a significant impact
in the country which are the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), Friends of Shirati, and the
Christian Social Services Commission (CSSC). These are the largest providers of hospital
services in Tanzania, owning 41.1% of hospitals, and the second largest provider of health
services, owning 23.3% of total health infrastructure, (CCIH 2021). This shows how FBOs play
a vital role in protecting children from non-communicable diseases by offering SRH services to
those who cannot afford to pay for them. FBOs also advocate for information dissemination,
providing the necessary knowledge to the children.

Globally, children are overrepresented among the poor, accounting for almost half of all the
people living in extreme poverty, (UNICEF & World Bank Group 2016) thus in most developing
countries around the world, children are more likely to be poor than adults. It can be noted that
for children, decent living standards are not only of intrinsic value but are instrumental in
allowing them to enjoy their rights to survival and development, education, good health and
freedom from child labour. According to UNICEF, 4.8 million Zimbabwean children live in
poverty and 1.6 million children live in extreme poverty. The most prevalent issues for
impoverished children in Zimbabwe include malnutrition, education, sanitation and access to
potable water. Poverty denies children their fundamental human rights.

Severe or extreme poverty can cause children permanent damage, both physically and mentally,
stunt and distort their development and destroy opportunities of fulfilment, including the roles
they are expected to play successively as they get older in family, community and society,
(Gordon et al 2003) In light of this, FBOs are seen to be providing a wide array of social
protection interventions such as nutrition and health interventions, early childhood development
programs, social care services, social work services, academic grants and birth registration
among others, (Gassman & Timar 2018). This aligns well with their role of providing critical
links to local faith communities in humanitarian contexts, facilitating rapid response to disaster
and reinforcing resilience of local communities for peace building and recovery. These social
protection systems have the potential to effectively support poor and vulnerable families thereby
contributing to children`s security.

Due to the fact that less resourced countries are deeply rooted in culture and tradition, they often
times normalize harmful cultural and traditional practices against children such as female genital
mutilation, forced marriages and early marriages due to poverty, forced virginity testing among
others, (Dokenoo 1994). FBOs often engage in conjunction with other entities that fight for
children rights to try and disseminate information on the dangers of these harmful practices.
FBOs liaise with numerous service providers in the areas which they operate in to ensure that
when such practices are reported, justice takes its toll. However, it is quite cumbersome to see to
it that these harmful cultural and traditional practices are eradicated as the community leadership
would be consenting with them. It can be noted that such practices pose a great threat to the
reproductive as well as mental and emotional health of the victim.

According to the General Assembly Resolution factsheet, action on traditional practices affecting
the health of women and children, in particular female genital mutilation (FGM), was first taken
in 1958 when the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) invited the World Health
Organization WHO to undertake a study of the persistence of customs subjecting girls to ritual
operations and to communicate the results of the study to the Commission on the Status of
Women. It went on to state that of the twenty-nine developing countries in Africa identified as
having communities practising female genital mutilation, twenty-four have branches of the Inter-
African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children, in
addition to many women's NGOs and various FBOs. The FBOs in question thus urgently need
continuing financial support to ensure that their programmes are fully implemented.

Nevertheless, on the contrary, it can be noted that it is not all Faith Based Organisations that
positively serve the society. There is Boko Haram which happens to be a Faith based
organization in its most radical state. According to the movement`s rhetoric, its goal is to
establish justice for the poor by all means and anything that gets in the way of that goal is
destroyed, (Campbell 2014). Henceforth, for Boko Haram, violence is not a perversion of Islam;
it is a justifiable means to a pure end. However, there aren’t as much FBOs of this nature.
In a nutshell, it cannot be disputed that FBO have an integral role to play as far as child
protection is concerned. FBOs fully supports The Children`s Act which addresses the overall
care and protection of children and provides instruction on the removal of children and young
people to alternative care and regulation of places of safety, remand homes, residential child care
facilities and training institutes. However, there is need for increased funding so as to enable
these FBOs to operate effectively for the damage in less resourced countries is deeper than that
in developed countries. Thus there is need for them to operate in full force to create a better
environment for children regardless of their location. FBOs also strive to create more sustainable
environments for the greater populace as this will eradicate issues such as child labour and child
poverty.
References

Bertram, K. (2014) The role Faith Based Organisation play in improving child survival, Johns
Hopkins centre for communication programs

CCHI (2021) Faith Based Organisation role in health systems in Tanzania

Chibwana, M. (2014) Assessment report of the alternative care system for children in
Zimbabwe, SOS children villages

Dorkenoo, E. (1994) Cutting the rose; female genital mutilation: the practice and its
prevention, London, Minority Rights Publications

Gassman, F. &Timar, E. (2018) The importance of social protection for children in the
Balkans, United Nations University

General Assembly Resolution 34/180 (1979) Convention on the elimination of all forms of
discrimination against women and girls

Godia, P. et al (2014) Young people`s perception of sexual reproductive health services in

Kenya, BMC health services research

Gordon, D. et al (2003) Child rights and child poverty in developing countries, Centre for
international poverty research

Inter-Religious Council of Kenya, Statement, International Day of the Child, 2007

Manatsa, I. (2018) An exploration on the role of Faith Based Organisations in dealing with
violence against women in Katanga, Zimbabwe, Durban University of Technology

Naeem, Z. et al (2011) Child labour in relation to poverty, International journal of health

sciences

Robinson, M. (2010) Conflict, Child protection and Religious communities, UNICEF

UNICEF Preliminary Summary Report available at

https://www.unicef.org/media/files/FBO_OVC_study_summary.pdf
UNFPA summary report (2017)

UNICEF & World Bank Group (2016)