International Day of the Boy Child: here is how to uplift the boychild

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Today, May 16 is International Day of the Boy Child, a day to focus on boys and their well-being, their needs to feel happy, healthy, and valued within family and community.

The day was founded in 2018 by Dr. Jerome Teelucksingh, a university lecturer from the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.

In commemoration of the day, Samuel Bakutana founder of Inspired Leaders International (ILI) says the world has walked away from the boy child today.

He is quick to share that in April, during the 38th intake of the public speaking course by ILI, Quin Carolyne Kabahinda one of the participating leaders read out appalling statistics from research done by Shule Foundation.

It indicates that 98% of full-time street children in Uganda are boys, with an estimated 16 new arrivals daily. Also, 1 in every 6 boys experiences sexual assault and 7 of every 8 child soldiers recruited are boys.

Add to that the 125 million boys globally who don't attend school and 88 million boys globally who are subjected to child labour.

These are shocking figures according to Bakutana. He says the country must deal with underlying issues to make the boy child feel special again.

“The boy child issue should be integrated into national planning,” he says adding; “It should be prioritized among civil society organizations, families, communities, and business entities.”

Also, Jennifer Mirembe Ssensuwa CEO of Weerinde Insurance Brokerage Company Ltd shared statistics from a recent research they carried out under Rotary International. They visited two remand homes and in one of them, 153 out of 156 inmates aged 12-17 years were boys (98%). In another, all the 161 inmates were boys which is 100%.

Bakutana calls upon stakeholders to address the health and well-being of boys so that the neglected boys won't keep being pushed by circumstances to disempower the empowered girl who seems to swim in privileges in the world of education, employment, and government programs. (All Photos by Ritah Mukasa)

They also found out that whereas the boy child problem is at alarming levels, 87% of deliberate initiatives in Uganda still focus on supporting the girl child in multiple ways.

Ssensuwa advocates uplifting the boy child, urging that it is key to securing the happiness of women and safeguarding the world of children.

Meanwhile, Ssensuwa is chairperson of ‘The Boy Child Uplifting Program’ (BCUP) under Rotary International in Uganda and Bakutana is provincial president of the Fathers' Union (FU).

Bakutana refers to Dr. Farrell Warren popularly called the Male feminist who made painful confessions about the family destabilization his feminist efforts had created in the world for decades, and how he is now putting all his efforts into trying to correct those gender mistakes, by dealing with the boy child crisis. For that, Dr. Warren coined a mantra; When one sex wins, both sexes lose.

Bakutana calls upon stakeholders to address the health and well-being of boys so that the neglected boys won't keep being pushed by circumstances to disempower the empowered girl who seems to swim in privileges in the world of education, employment, and government programs.

“Remember it's better and more cost-effective to mentor a young boy than to wait and mend a broken man,” he says.