Child sacrifice in Uganda is more common than authorities acknowledge. Children disappear frequently, murdered or mutilated by witch doctors as part of ceremonial ritual.

According to Ureport, SMS-based reporting system supported by Unicef and Brac: “10,317 youth in Uganda, representing every district in the country, confirmed they have heard of a child being sacrificed in their community”. A 2013 report from Humane Africa said that during their four-month fieldwork period from June to September 2012 there has been an average of one sacrifice each week in one of the 25 communities where the research was based.

The practice is rooted in the belief that blood sacrifice can bring fortune, wealth and happiness. The “purer” the blood, the more potent the spell, making innocent children a target. Witch doctors look for children without marks or piercings, so many parents pierce their children’s ears at birth and get their boys circumcised in an effort to protect them.

Children are either abducted from, or in some cases actually given to, witch doctors by relatives out of desperation for money. The rituals involve the cutting of children and the removal of some body parts, often facial features or genitals. These brutal acts are done while the child is still alive, and few survive.

According to Ugandan police records, incidences of child sacrifice are on the increase, with 10 cases recorded in 2013. The Ugandan Internal Trafficking Report estimated the number was 12, whereas first-hand interviews by Humane Africa detailed 77 incidents. Current research by KidsRights states that these varying statistics are most likely the “tip of the iceberg, as data is insufficient and the real scope of child sacrifice is not yet visible”.

Evidence that reflects the true scale of the problem is hard to find, as many cases go unreported and, as a result of corruption in the police and judicial system, few perpetrators are convicted. Unicef stated that “task forces ... lack resources to convene and exist often in name only”.

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Masese II, a small community of displaced people on the outskirts of Jinja in eastern Uganda, has suffered many ritual attacks on its children.

The police cite eastern Uganda as having the highest incidence of child sacrifice cases; and blame the high infiltration of unregistered healers. With little protection from the authorities, communities like Masese II were seemingly powerless. In partnership with a Ugandan NGO, Adolescent Development Support Network (ADSN), UK charity Children on the Edge started a programme there in 2012, after an assessment identified the children in this slum as particularly vulnerable.

The only industry at the time was the brewing of potent alcohol (waragi), which did not generate enough income for parents and carers to feed their children or send them to school. With many adults inebriated and a prevalence of grandmother- and child-headed households, children were particularly exposed to being taken.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Children on the Edge ran a social mapping workshop with children to show them the safe places to play. Photograph: Rachel Bentley/Children on the Edge

To bring the abduction rates down, a “child friendly space” was established in the community, using a donated local council building. This centre is a safe place, where children from the ages of three to six receive a daily meal, learn, play and receive care from trusted adults. When they reach primary school age their parents/carers are supported through income-generating schemes to enable them to send their children to school. As part of the project, a patch of land was donated to grow food for the children at the centre and to enable many adults from the community to develop agricultural livelihoods as an alternative to breweries.

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The most important component of the programme has been the establishment of a community child protection committee (CCPC). At the height of a a spate of killings in July 2012, 10 responsible adults were identified within the community and were trained on all aspects of child protection. Part of this process was to raise awareness of the issue of child sacrifice, tackling the beliefs, mindsets and behaviour that sustain the practice. These workshops were held together with local leaders and police.

The CCPC then began raising awareness of child protection issues within the community, holding meetings and visiting door to door. They were equipped with a loudspeaker system so that when a child went missing the community could be alerted. This, along with a bicycle so that members could immediately report cases to the local police, has proved to be a remarkable deterrent to the perpetrators.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Equipping the community child protection committee with bicycles meant they could report missing children to local police more quickly. Photograph: Edwin Wanede/Children on the Edge

Children have participated in the process by helping to identify the area by the railway tracks where they are at most risk of abduction. Children used to collect scrap around these tracks, but the committee taught them to avoid it and not to wander too far from home.

All of these measures have resulted in a rapid decrease in abductions, with seven cases in 2011, eight in 2012 and no incident in Masese II in the last 18 months. The CCPC reports that there was one attempted case nine months ago, when a four-year-old girl was taken, but she was “swiftly rescued by community members”.

ADSN programme manager Edwin Wanede says the CCPC has made an impact by building relationship and trust, while the government’s poster, radio and TV ads do not get the message through. This is because many poorer communities are illiterate, and people respond better to the advice of their friends and neighbours, rather than that of strangers and authorities.

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With work in Masese II proving effective, Children on the Edge and ADSN have started developing the programme in two neighbouring communities. Two weeks ago, we heard that two children in the Jinja area had gone missing. The mother found two skulls which she suspects are her children’s. Previously her partner had suggested one child be given to a witch doctor in exchange for 200 million shillings (£45,000). It’s clearly time to begin some work on replicating the Masese II project in other areas.

One of these places is Wandagu, which is situated off a main highway and consequently prone to passers-by stealing children. Isolated parts of the sugar plantations here also provide hiding places for perpetrators. Just four months ago a five-year-old girl was found murdered amongst the sugar canes, with parts of her body missing. A CCPC is already being formed here, and a few bicycles and loudspeakers bought. The hope is that soon the Wandagu community will form a safety net as strong as that in Masese II.

Esther Smitheram is communications officer at Children on the Edge. Follow @cote_uk on Twitter.

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