Children in street situations are at the heart of SASCU’s advocacy. While advocating for children in street situations and other vulnerable children, we include them in a meaningful way, to ensure that our strategies are grounded in the realities, needs and lived experiences of the children; and help to empower them to demand for their rights.
Through collective partnership, we also advocate for the rights of children in street situations by calling for government action to provide services to children in street situations. Ultimately, all these engagements are communicated through print and electronic media, including new media.
SASCU also generates regular status reports on the situation of children living on the streets and other vulnerable children, as an evidence base for her advocacy at local, district and national level

Children in street situations face particular barriers in being heard, and the UN Committee encourages States to make proactive efforts to overcome those barriers. States and intergovernmental organizations should provide — and support civil society organizations in providing — children in street situations with a supportive and enabling environment to: be heard in judicial and administrative proceedings; carry out their own initiatives; and fully participate at the community and national levels in policy and programme conceptualization, design, implementation, coordination, monitoring, review and communication, including through the media.

Interventions are of most benefit to children in street situations when the children themselves are involved actively in assessing needs, devising solutions, shaping strategies and carrying them out, rather than being seen as objects for whom decisions are made. States should also listen to relevant adults, such as family and community members, professionals and advocates, when developing prevention and response strategies.

Interventions should support individual children in street situations to exercise their rights and develop skills, resilience, responsibility and citizenship, in line with their evolving capacities. States should support and encourage children in street situations to form their own child-led organizations and initiatives, which will create space for meaningful participation and representation.

Where appropriate, and when properly safeguarded, children in street situations can raise awareness by sharing their own experiences, to reduce stigmatization and discrimination and to help prevent other children ending up in street situations.
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[1] General comment No. 12 (2009) on the right of the child to be heard.
[2] See ibid., para. 128.

Our Approach

Save Street Children Uganda’s work is developed within the network on different parallel levels – community, regional, national and international – consistent with the complete-protection measures necessary to ensure the well-being of the child. Our aim is to promote, protect and implement social policies and laws that affect children in street situations and other vulnerable children. On the other hand, we seek to bring about change in attitude, such as discrimination, stigmatization, criminalisation and the “normalisation” of injustice. Advocacy actions also come within the organisation’s priority target areas, as set out in “The importance of advocacy for the rights of the child” in the SASCU strategic plan 2017-2021.” The aim is to provide an effective way of increasing the application of children’s rights. The reference in this matter is the International Convention on the Rights of the Child. Article 3 of the convention which sets out the rationale of promoting the best interest of the child in all circumstances.

Through collective partnership, we also advocate for the rights of children in street situations by calling for government action to provide services such as education, health and shelter. Ultimately, all these engagements are communicated through print and electronic media, including new media.

SASCU also generates regular status reports and situation analysis on the status of children in street situations, as an evidence base for advocacy at local, district and national level.

Innovations

Save Street Children Uganda is supporting the Government of Uganda to strengthen case management through the development of a Management Information System (MIS), which will help to provide real time statistics of children in street situations and enhance service delivery, targeting children in street situations.