TCA- Mobile Family court program

Why have we established "TCA- Mobile Family Court program..?"

There have been great efforts made by various stakeholders along with the government of the United Republic of Tanzania in running anti-violence campaigns and putting gender desk services to the ward level, to ensure that violence against children are stopped in society.

The report of incidents of violence against children reported and processed by the Tanzania  police force for the year 2022/2023, is 12,163 incidents shows an increase of 5.8% equal to 664 cases of violence against children compared to the report of the year 2021/2022 the total number of events is 11,499.

The TCA panel has analyzed and compared the statistics of cases of violence against children for several years back, and asked ourselves three basic questions, in order to determine which areas may not have been worked properly by stakeholders, which remain as one of the breeding grounds for increasing acts of violence against children.

The questions we asked are as follows:-

1. Have the efforts to combat violence against children in the country failed to produce positive results? Or

2. Is the increase in the number of cases of violence against children reported and recorded by the police force a result of increased awareness among the community not to turn a blind eye compared to the past? and

3. What..? What are the areas that may not have been worked on properly, so they remain breeding grounds for the increase in violence against children?

 The summation of the answers to those three questions, led us to think deeply about the FAMILY, as an area that is reported to be the place, where acts of violence are more common compared to other areas. Almost all forms of violence take place at home, experience shows that the prevalence of acts of violence in many families is the result of challenges in the upbringing and development of the child, which is caused by a decrease or absence of good communication between the parent/guardian and the child, so every one side continues to blame the other side, and provides an opening for the use of excessive force against the child such as beatings, insults, harassment, denying basic services, and etc. When the case comes before the gender desk or the police, immediate steps are taken including placing the parent or guardian in custody/detention. And in the end, the child is warned by the parent to be punished and allowed to return home, but the problem is still not resolved, but the parent has a grudge against the child and the love decreases and the end is not good. This is the reason why TCA started a special program called TCA-Mobile family court program with the aim of providing inspiration and enthusiasm among district welfare officers, to support the implementation of this program to reach families in their areas and to provide services to solve the challenges of upbringing and development of the child in the family, in a friendly way to compare the behavior and negative attitudes between the child and the parent after listening to each one privately, and finally the Family court will continue to provide clinical services for the correction of behavior and negative attitudes on both sides and ensure that we solve their challenges for love and peace without affecting either side psychologically.