ABUSED AND NEGLECTED CHILDREN IN UGANDA

The study rotates around family conflicts (or mental health issues) which, if mismanaged, potentially, spills over into the wider community. It goes further to trace individual concerns (inner conflicts) that families consciously or unconsciously perpetuate –which, if not given due attention, like a time-bomb, blows up into serious social costs like substance abuse, aggressive and risky behaviors, increased HIV/AIDS prevalence, low productivity, poverty and looming ignorance to solve those problems. It is, thus, pertinent to address such problems from the environment around the root (individuals at family level) in order to achieve sustainable peace in the wider community (global peace).

A family is a fundamental social group in society typically consisting of one or two parents and their children (thefreedictionary.com, retrieved October 7, 2010) defines. Family mental health is critical determinant of future wars, turmoil and their consequences while parenting justified parenthood through realization of noble roles in respect of child development and growth that sees the child re-socialize and project him or herself to independence, learn to co-exist peacefully with family members and society as well as be in position to prioritize among the various interaction sources in the environment to achieve defined goals in life. Fancher R. (2010) explained, “…Because what other people think determines what opportunities you're going to have in life, and other people already have that power, whether you and your therapist recognize it or not."

There are nearly 54 million people around the world with severe mental disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorder (manic-depressive illness). Estimated 154 million people suffer from depression. People living in developing countries are disproportionately affected. Mental disorders are increasingly prevalent in developing countries, the consequence of persistent poverty-driven conditions, the demographic transition, conflicts in fragile states and natural disasters. At the same time, more than 50% of developing countries do not provide any care for persons with mental disorders in the community. These disorders bring significant hardship not only to those who suffer from them, but also to their caregivers -- often the family, given the lack of mental health resources found in developing countries (WHO, 2007).

As the family continues to play its children development roles –providing both moral and physical support, the community, too, begins to identify its development concerns and wishes in that child. That, though, can either be for the good or worse. Responsibility on the part of family and community and eventual decisions made, thus, contributes to mental wellness of the child that characterizes freedom from the means to psychological trauma as violence.

Absence of love, trust, and feeling of insecurity on the part of the child influences later development outlooks and, in years to come, it will be society that either benefits or suffers. Forgiveness reduces excessive anger in children and in teenagers and may prevent the development of later psychiatric disorders by giving children and teenager a proven method for resolving anger (Fitzgibbons P., 2005).

The main objective of the intervention is to proactively deal with violence against children and family level to achieve sustainable global peace. The intervention set out to find out how best to make X’s movements safe, to identify origins of the sudden break down of mental functioning, develop ways to recovery of X, and X’s recovery and its implication on peace of the family and wider community.

The scope of the intervention is child abuse and neglect in families and their implication on peace in the wider community (global peace). The significance of the intervention is to reach sustainable peace for future generations to thrive by addressing conflict issues (or psychological concerns) right from within individuals in the families to the wider community.

There was a case involving a youth (X) who had suddenly broken down –mentally and began loitering on the streets in areas perceived to be secure –since trust had been lost for everyone and everything. No longer could X work, live in a family setting and trust friends. X was sleepless and often rushed out of bed claiming some people wanted to take X’s life.

The interventions involved consulting various mental health professions in psychiatry and psychology fields, faiths known for their healing powers, seeking networks of people thought to have cared a lot about X, enactment to review and re-show loving and caring scenes with people said to have victimized X, cognitive-based approaches to re-instate truthfulness or rightfulness of situations from the wrongfully perceived states, subjecting X to new environments free from people held responsible for X’s problem, medical care to assess X’s physiological state, examination of X’s love life, and signing in X to the world of social networking (i.e. facebook.com).

The challenges of children growing in broken families included; the big burden to achieve life goals on their own –with no hope of parental intervention, inability to make wise health decisions, difficulty to ensure personal safety and healthy social relations, generation of high pressure to achieve and to break development barriers (mentally, socially and institutionally), the fear of dropping out of school due to inability to pay fees on his or her own that catapults into failure to concentrate and excel academically in order to attain a good career, inability to solve problems associated with choosing and having healthy relationships, and inability to manage chronic stress that characterizes his or her family life a condition that, potentially, pursues child into adulthood –and in responsible social positions. Also, there are critical challenges of lack of social support coupled with the lack of confidence to seek it –as viable path to building resilience required for the child succeed in life.

It was, then, upon community to proactively change the situation through actively granting political, economic, and socio-cultural and safety rights –to significantly avert insecurity in all its manifestations right from family level. It was concluded from an intervention in the life of an abused and neglected child that the amount of resilience resulting from positive reinforcement from friends, teachers and inspiring leaders or roles models from media products, supported adaptability or coping -and some kind of positive spiritual inclinations greatly catapulted abused and neglected children through traps of childhood suffocation, underachievement, psychopathological enclaves and demeaning parental hostilities.

It was noted that involvement of godly impressions as part of the intervention in addressing psychological implications of child abuse, worked best in situations –where the victim trusted no one –including those who really loved them. However, every intervention counted and complimented each other.

In addition, community interventions at village level, national level, regional and global forces of peace restructuring, reconciliation required actual provision of physical needs to victims of domestic violence –ensuring access to development needs and support information on successful human development –as critical means to control and prevent wars and psychological trauma. From the inner peace of individual family members, society can register sustainable peace.

There is never standard time of recovery; it can be very frustrating if you set your own time. Recovery is very gradual, slow, sometimes showing reversals and stagnation. However, with endurance, optimism and timeless patience, positive results show up.

According to the en.wikipedia.org (2010), Insecurity is a feeling of general unease or nervousness that may be triggered by perceiving of oneself to be unloved, inadequate or worthless (whether in a rational or an irrational manner). A person who is insecure lacks confidence in their own value and capability, lacks trust in themselves or others, or has fears that a present positive state is temporary and will let them down and cause them loss or distress by "going wrong" in the future. Insecurity may cause shyness, paranoia and social withdrawal, or alternatively it may encourage compensatory behaviors such as arrogance, aggression, or bullying. Insecurity is often rooted in a person's childhood years.

Indeed some of the outcomes can be in form of aggressive attitudes, fears, anxieties, and broken ambitions –which later go behavioral in form of acts like substance abuse, irrational decision making, forming socially dangerous alliances or relationships (as means to “address” personal insecurities), registering underachievement in all or selected aspects of life, concerns of anti-social personality disorders, problems associated with authoritative and abusive parenting, poor role-modeling along the path to becoming future parents, high levels of crime and prostitution (and its associated problems), and violence in homes and in the wider society –all of which are true manifestation of structural violence with roots right in the family.

Incidentally, some of the products from such families attain high social positions and, so, society begins to meet the costs. Such (products) are generated from broken families because of the conditions dictated by the negative past.

A 2005 national (US) study of psychiatric disorders revealed the origins of childhood anger –which included rejection by peers and siblings, parental anger, marital conflicts, low self-esteem, difficulty in trusting, separation and divorce, poor body image and academic difficulties (Fitzgibbons P., 2005).

Family and individual members in it cannot be separated from the wider community. Indeed communalism is medicine of its own. The wider community had inexhaustible reserves for the family to access for survival and wellness purposes –which is a foundation for community survival and wellness –in return.

This is so because from the community the family obtained enabling policies, social services, physical and psychological security as well as development opportunities for members’ progress into the future. Such guaranteed security for the family, inner peace for individuals members of the family and, eventually, sustainable community peace.

A Multi-sectoral approach to peaceful building is core in recovery and, thus, ought to be put into consideration in any intervention design. But, families must be very careful with what they sow in a developing child, so that society resources can be channeled to prosperity concerns.


Jacob Waiswa
Situation Health Analyst
Dishma Inc.

Addressing Global Problems at Family Level-A Case of an Abused and Neglected African Child

Family mental health is critical determinant of future of wars, turmoil and their consequences while parenting justified parenthood through realization of noble roles in respect of child development and growth that features child re-socialization and projection to independence, learning to co-exist peacefully with family members and society, and problem-solving to achieve defined goals in life.

As the family continues to play its development role -both moral and physical support in the life of a child, the community too begins to identify its development concerns and expectations of that child. This, though, as for families, can be for the good or worse. Responsibility on the part of the family and community and eventual decisions made, thus, contribute to mental wellness of the child, free from abuse and neglect.


For example, absence of love, trust, and feeling of security on the part of the child influence later development outlooks and, in years to come, it is society that either benefits or suffers. Some of the outcomes can be aggressiveness, fears, anxieties, and broken ambitions that, with time, go behavioral in the forms of substance abuse, irrational alliances or relationship to seek security, underachievement, anti-social behaviors, authoritative and abusive parenting, poor role modeling of parents –as some turn criminals, prostitutes or get diseased; and breakdown of the social fabric with violence in homes and in the wider society.
From the level of a family such outcomes later are manifested in communities -at places of work or in very important political positions -and these become corrupt national leaders, or military aggressors of nations in which masses suffer from acts of violence and psychological trauma.

The challenges of children growing in broken families include; the big burden to achieve life goals on their own -with no hope of parental intervention; no guidance to making wise health decisions, to ensure personal safety and healthy social assimilation.

That, generates high pressure and chronic stress to achieve, to break development barriers mentally, socially and institutionally; and child develops along the fear of dropping out of school due to inability to pay fees on his or her own –catapulted by failure to concentrate and excel academically, to attain a good career, inability to solve problems associated with choosing and having healthy relationships, and inability to manage chronic stress that characterizes his or her family environment –which shapes child's future into adulthood and in responsible social positions that the future provides. The child continues to live a life without social support and lack of confidence to seek it to viably building resilience required to succeed in life.

It was concluded from an intervention in the life of an abused child that the amount of resilience resulting from positive reinforcement from friends, teachers and inspiring leaders or roles models from media products, supported adaptability or coping -and some kind of positive spiritual inclinations greatly catapulted abused and neglected children through traps of childhood suffocation, underachievement, psycho-pathological enclaves and demeaning parental hostilities. It should be noted that involvement of in godly activities worked best for them in situations –where the victim trusted no one -including those who really loved them.

In addition to community intervention at village level, or at national level, or regional and global forces of peace restructuring, reconciliation and actual provision of physical needs to children goes a long way towards pacification of the individual or society, ensuring access to development needs and support information to successful yet sustainable human development –as critical means to control and prevent global wars and psychological trauma.

Graduate Peace and Conflict Studies Program
Makerere University
P.O. Box 7062, Kampala-Uganda
jwaiswa@arts.mak.ac.ug