Lilongwe district council has appealed to its partners to assist with resources to address mobility challenges the council is facing on child protection issues.
District Social Welfare Officer Derrick Mwenda made the appeal during Child Protection Technical Working Group meeting on Friday.
Mwenda said lack of motorcycles has affected Child Protection Workers to effectively handle child cases through case management.
” Out of 16 Child Protection Workers our office has, only 3 have motorcycles while the rest walk on foot to manage their catchment areas,” said Mwenda.
Mwenda also mentioned inadequate funding as another factor which is affecting child protection issues in the district.
For example, he said his office has been allocated about K10 million for operations in the 2023/2024 Financial Year and this may affect monitoring, supervision and case follow up on child protection.
Some of the child-related cases the district experience are sexual abuse, child labour, child marriages
and child trafficking among others.
According to the presentation made during the meeting, the district has registered 353 child marriages, 38, child trafficking and 262 sexual abuse cases between January and April 2023.
The report further indicates that Traditional Authority Njewa is on top in terms of child relates cases in the district.
Child Protection stakeholders also discussed issues to do with preparation of 2023 Day of African Child Commemoration expected to be held in June this year.
The appeal for consideration of motorcycles comes while the district has over 40 partners working in different areas of intervention.
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