Life lessons on children exercising their rights

Rebecca is the Children’s Officer for Kuresoi South local authority in Nakuru County, where much of the local economy is from tea farming. Her job is to support children and families with children, many of them who work in the local tea industry.

In partnership with the Departments of Health and Education, she carries out awareness raising work, ensuring that children know about their rights and the mechanisms for reporting abuse.

We deal with cases to do with children or a violation of children’s rights. My work is basically to safeguard the best interests of children.

We do a lot of awareness raising, particularly with schools. We partner with the Ministry of Health, the Social Department and the Department of Education to travel around the sub-country promoting children’s rights.

Unfortunately, most of the children in this area did not even know they have rights. We make sure that children know their rights and that their rights are not violated.

Most of the children now know that there’s a free number they can use to call the Children’s Officer. For those who lack the confidence to come to the office to report, they can call that number. They will get help. It’s our helpline.

It’s just the humanity of wanting to see the best for that child. I see my children in most of the children here, so I support these children as I would want my own children to be supported.

I was very shocked when I first arrived here as I saw over 200 school-going children out playing on the streets in their uniforms when they should have been at school.

We’ve been trying to bring down [the number of children missing school]. It’s not what I would want it to be but I believe it can change in the next few years.

I feel like the situation is improving now as people are more aware of their rights and people are more aware of the law and what kind of penalties or prison sentence they would face [if they committed a crime].