protection
Empowering Communities, Improving Quality of Life
protection program
Our protection work is about advocating for and supporting actions that aim to reduce and prevent children’s, women’s, girls’ and disadvantaged groups’ exposure to risks and to ensure respect for the rights of individuals by those responsible, in accordance with national laws of Uganda, and human rights. We do this using the Rights-based Approach to programming, which is premised on assessment of the rights situation of the target groups we serve, who live in remote disadvantaged communities, to enable them enjoy their rights and have the capacity to hold Rights Duty Bearers accountable, and demand for favorable change in the rights environment.
We focus on the economic, social, cultural, and political conditions in which people are born, grow, and live that affect health status, and engage people to modify risk behaviors such as substance abuse, poor eating habits, and lack of physical activity, which contribute to the development of chronic disease.
Child Protection
We engage community stakeholders, including Child Protection Committees, Police, Community Leaders, schools, and health workers at the community level for the prevention of and response to abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence against children in community and in schools. This is because the majority of people affected by the situation of post-conflict Acholi Sub-region are children, according to police records and records of the community services departments of all districts in the region. Our initiative particularly focuses on addressing and challenging the widely accepted norm and cultural practice of Early/ Forced/ Child Marriage. Children’s vulnerability to economic exploitation and physical or sexual abuse is alarmingly on the rise in both humanitarian and development settings. According to 2016 International Labor Organization estimates, 4.3 million children were engaged in forced labor worldwide and 1 million are victims of commercial sexual exploitation.
Gender -based violence (GBV)
GBV is the most pervasive act of violence that is experienced globally, in homes, in schools, at work, during war, during emergency disaster, during travels etc. Yet the most common from of GBV is intimate partner violence perpetrated in intimate relationships.
According to the National Survey on Violence in Uganda: Module 1 Violence Against Women and Girls conducted in November 2021,
- Lifetime prevalence of intimate partner physical violence among ever partnered women was 45%, the highest being in Acholi Sub region (78%);
- About 16% of the ever-partnered women reported severe physical violence; lifetime prevalence of intimate partner sexual violence was 36% with the highest prevalence recorded in the regions of, Acholi (64%), Bukedi (61%) and Elgon (52%). The prevalence of recent sexual violence was 28%.
- The most frequent act of sexual violence was a woman being physically forced to have sexual intercourse (29%); The lifetime prevalence of physical or sexual violence, or both, by an intimate partner was 56%.
- Emotional abuse: 55% of the ever-partnered women had experienced any act of emotional abuse in their lifetime. The prevalence of recent occurrence of any emotional acts of violence was 36%, while 9% had experienced at least three of the emotional acts.
- Controlling behavior: The most frequent form of controlling behavior was insisting on where the woman was at all times (54%) followed by getting angry if the woman spoke to another man. About 44% of the women agreed to all the reasons that might be acceptable for a woman to refuse sex while 10% agreed to none of the reasons.
- Half (51%) of the women agree with at least one of the reasons justifiable for wife beating.
- Sixty two percent of the ever-partnered women have initiated physical violence once or twice in the 12 months preceding the survey.
We at DTO work with women at household levels to address these critical issues of violence in intimate relationships. We create awareness about the consequences of violence while using primary prevention methodologies to challenge and end violent norms, while promoting the benefits of choosing positive alternation actions for safe and peaceful homes and relationships. We engage the entire community including children, youth, women, men, and community structures.
We encourage for survivors of violence to report cases of violence and seek immediate help, care or support from services provided within their locations, in a timely manner. We challenge men and boys to use their power positively and choose non-violence
Our Areas of Operations
DTO operates in Gulu City, Gulu, and Nwoya districts in addressing health needs, human rights, and livelihoods concerns amongst the poorest of the poor, vulnerable and marginalized populations in target locations of operation. In the next six years (2023 – 2029), DTO will expand operations to cover the districts of Amuru, Omoro, Pader, Kitgum, Lamwo and Agago, as permitted by the National NGO Bureau.