PLA has been implementing activities in Katwe 1 parish, Kampala district that aim at prevention of child labour and protection of child labourers with specific focus on child domestic work. This has been through community empowerment, education and training. Under this project, 110 child domestic workers and children at risk of joining were identified during a social mapping and 45 community members were trained on the problem of child domestic work, legal provisions relating to child domestic work, children’s rights, CDW monitoring mechanisms and the strategies for prevention, withdrawal and protection of child domestic workers. The trained community members have held awareness creation meetings with over 700 other members.

Children have been an integral part of the project implementation and are actively involved in awareness creation through songs and plays and development of information, education and communication materials. They have also participated in project monitoring and in reporting cases of child abuse to PLA and other stakeholders.

In Lira, the child domestic workers have been trained and Peer to peer education is being done by the children themselves. This has seen an increase in the number of child domestic labour cases being reported to the office. PLA has also withdrawn 256 child domestic workers and sent them to school.

Platform for Labour Action has made great strides to alleviate the circumstances that a large number of these children find themselves in. The organization has worked throughout the year to prevent the involvement of children in work that is dehumanizing and harmful to their physical and emotional well being and to rehabilitate them through primary, secondary and vocational education.

• 227 female and male children have been removed from work they were engaged in, 150 of these were in high risk work environments.
• 76 of those that were withdrawn were placed in school and provided with the basic scholastic requirements of uniforms, exercise books and pens. 55 child domestic workers received protective services
• Additional aids such as sewing machines, hand held saws and hammers were also supplied.
• Mattresses and bed sheets and blankets were also distributed to those most in need
• 18 of the poorest families received grants for viable and sustainable income generating projects, which would enable them to make basic provisions for their children’s educational needs.

PLa is the lead agency of the 24 member Civil Society Organization Coalition on Social Security Reform. As part of the Social Security Stakeholders Transition (STG), PLA attended the launch of the second phase of the STG in April 2004, whereby it was intimated that the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development had adopted the report. As the coordinating organization PLA conducted consultative meetings with National Social Security Fund (NSSF) contributors in collaboration with MS Uganda under the theme “Transparency and Accountability to contributors: the Future of Social Security in Uganda.” The aim of the meeting was to give contributors a platform to express their concerns about the management affairs of the fund and the transfer of the NSSF from the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development to the Ministry of Finance in the wake of allegations of gross financial mismanagement.

PLA under The Civil Society Organizations Coalition on Social Security and Pension Reform is implementing a programme on social security and pension’s reform. The goal is to build a strong civic voice that advocates for contributor-centered reforms in the Social Security and Pensions Sector.

The problem of HIV/AIDs is a great one, not only for Uganda. PLA is working in the districts of Kampala, Wakiso and Lira to help in the prevention and mitigation of HIV/AIDs. PLA has held meetings with its community networks in Bwaise and Nansana educating and distributing condoms and IEC materials. It has also worked to extend its HIV/AIDs program to help women, children and youth in Lira Municipality.

Approximately 180 informal sector workers comprised of 45 women, 75 children and 60 youth have received training on HIV/AIDs. Peer educators have been involved in community outreach and sensitization, creating awareness through poster campaigns and the distribution of materials on HIV/AIDs with special focus on internally displaced people as a vulnerable group.

Through its awareness seminars PLA has been able to reach to over 800 adults. The organization has worked hand in hand with the community to produce informative and understandable posters to generate increased awareness and to target as wide as an audience as possible. These have been translated into two dialects Luganda and Langi. In 2005 Platform for Labour Action received a grant from the Canadian Development Agency for a project on HIV/AID prevention and impact mitigation among the children, youth and women working in the informal sector in Lira Municipality. Under this project the three groups each identified income generating activities that were supported to sustain their livelihoods and overall 341 women, youth and children were trained on entrepreneurship skills and business management. Click here to see the program photo gallery.