by Johnny Fisher

Soot Semee is helping refugee communities in Northern Uganda to protect children at risk. A large international NGO which is responsible for child protection in resettlement camps, has been working with Soot Semee volunteers to enhance their engagement with communities. The community volunteers help the NGO develop relevant and accessible messages for podcasts. The podcast content helps community members to recognise and deal with child protection issues, while also providing information on how to access the NGO services to protect vulnerable children.

In one location, a foster family was abusing a child refugee who had been placed with them. Some neighbours realised what was happening, and as a result of the Soot Semee podcasts, they knew how to report the situation. The NGO was able to remove the child from the abusive situation and place them with a new family.

In such sensitive situations, it is vital that community members know they can trust the NGO. By bringing community members and NGO workers together to develop podcast content, Soot Semee not only provides a channel for reliable information, but facilitates essential relationship building. As a result, people know they can trust the service providers as well as the information they provide. For children in Omugo zone, this is literally life-saving.