Background: Violence against children (VAC) remains an urgent global dilemma and researchers and policymakers alike continue to work tirelessly to devise strategies aiming to end VAC. However, the perspectives and expertise of children themselves remain underrepresented in the drafting and implementation of these strategies against VAC. This paper draws attention to the marginalization of children living outside of family care and centers their perspective.
Objective: This study aimed to characterize the forms of violence experienced by children living outside the family setting in Uganda, from the perspective of children themselves. The paper seeks to position the voicing of this perspective as a form of resistance against VAC from a decolonial perspective.
Participants and setting: The participatory research process included a total of 94 participants in various urban study sites in Kampala, Uganda.
Methods: The research team completed this qualitative study within a youth-driven participatory action research (YPAR) framework. Data collection techniques included interviews, focus groups, participatory visual methods and social cartography.
Results: Children living outside of family care experience grave forms of emotional, physical and sexual violence. Child participants present survival strategies that can inform future research and policies on violence prevention practice.
Conclusions: The illustration of explicit violence outlined in this study represents a form of resistance children take against their perpetrators. The participatory youth researcher team urges future research and policy addressing VAC in Uganda to center these perspectives and expertise of children and adolescents in both programmatic and research initiatives aiming to end violence against children.
Keywords: Children outside of family care; Street-connected children; Uganda; Violence against children; Youth-driven participatory action research (YPAR).
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