<div>Batwa Indigenous Empowerment Program.   VIOLATION OF THE BATWA RIGHTS BATWA HUMAN RIGHTS
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<div>Batwa indigenous people have faced several challenges of injustice. Marginalization, discrimination, and they are not presented in any seat in the government of Uganda. However, we are also challenged with the problem of land injustice and eviction challenge that was done to the Batwa by the government. This is one of the major issues that have caused us to start up this organization to work hard to overcome all these injustices Batwa people have been challenged with right from 1991 up to now.
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<div> LAND PROBLEM
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<div> Batwa people are currently scattered all over the country. They are just displaced: some live on the church lands, government small plots and others squatting on other people’s lands looking after their gardens and their domestic animals. We raise funds to buy lands for the Batwa and construct for them improved houses, practice crop growing to make sure that the Batwa stop going on streets to beg for food we hope to at least in future have a big Batwa food store and bigger food gardens and their we can end hunger out of the Batwa communities.
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<div>         3. BATWA GIRLS AND WOMEN SEXUAL ABUSE
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<div>(I) following the notice report of the assessment we have done in May 2019 mostly settlements located in the south of Bwindi forest the Batwa settlements were formed after the forceful eviction of the Batwa and denial of access to the forests of Bwindi and Mghiga forests in 1990-1991.
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<div>This left the Batwa people in the cycle of poverty which resulted into a problem where Batwa mothers and girls vulnerable to sexual abuses we termed as cheap sex by Bakiga men.
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<div> As a Batwa Indigenous Empowerment Program we have done a full month assessment in all the six Batwa settlements. Within May 2019 where we have managed to consult to a number of women and girls in these settlements within the end of May we managed to mobilize two meetings with the Batwa women and girls we compiled the consultation assessment we have come up with this problem which we found that it needs quick awareness and intervention.
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<div>All women and girls who have helped us to carry out this consultation we hope to select them to be the first beneficiary of this project where we hope to train them to be the leaders who will be helping us to report this problem to the government authorities.
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<div>_within the consultation we also consulted one of the biggest hospital in kisoro district called st Francis mutorere hospital which have been implementing a health project within these batwa settlement where we wanted to find out the report they have about the problem HIV/AIDS within the batwa settlements where we found out that the batwa people are highly affected by HIV/AIDS over 80% of one of the batwa settlements have been affected by AIDS. And other communities living far away from the town are also slightly affected about 40% are affected we came up with a conclusion that there should be a special program to address this problem also.
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<div>_we also consulted another Organization called the united organization for Batwa development in Uganda UOBDU this organization have been implementing a project of petitioning for the Batwa lost lands supported by the forest peoples program their report says they have seen this challenge rising up with in the Batwa communities but they had not thought of making a project to address it. They also implemented a project of educating the Batwa children but they were challenged by this problem where all the Batwa girls dropped out of school impregnated by the bakyiga man and they still dropped them.
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<div>At any age Batwa women/girls are often lured into having unprotected sex without clear understanding of the negative results. many women and girls have been impregnated  and others affected by HIV/AIDS
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<div>However many batwa girls have been impregnated during their school stages and have dropped out of schools before they can complete their studies. They produce children and their bakiga fathers refuse to care for them since they don’t like to be known in the area that they had sex with batwa people. No significant preventive program or proper advocacy have been developed on this issue this issue has largely been hidden possibly because sexual issues are not discussed openly in general in uganda. Other organizations that have been working for batwa who should have supposed to speak for batwa have not made the matter public issue. The batwa women and girls are actually sexually exploited and raped it tends to destroy the batwa traditional linking where most of the batwa women/girls have remained vulnerable single mothers.
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<div>(ii)how other identities of (religion, sexually, ages, ethnicity )of the batwa men, women and girls play into the experience of the problem.
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<div>Since the Batwa people were forcefully evicted from their ancestral lands they have been challenged with a problem of poverty and marginalization this has caused the batwa to go to close towns on streets to look for food, either in compost its, begging on streets and also looking for other ways of surviving. However the bakiga people has taken it the advantage of using both the batwa women and girls for cheap sex, either giving them small money or giving them alcohol and cigarettes at times raping them and being the batwa people bakiga refuse to take care of them when they become pregnant and they still refuse to care for the children batwa women and girls produce since they are not of their tribe.
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<div>                                          BATWA HEALTH PROBLEMS
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<div>The majority of the Batwa live in terrible conditions and are some of the most vulnerable people in Africa. The Batwa indigenous people in South-western Uganda are among the minority tribes threatened by extinction due to isolation, discrimination, malnutrition, but most of all by poor health and lack of proper medical access. The health situation among the Batwa communities remains the biggest factor in decreasing the Batwa population. Different diseases claim Batwa lives including AIDS, dysentery, cholera, tuberculosis, and most of the women and their babies die during childbirth. 
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<div>We are here requesting for help to cover the costs of transporting Batwa patients to medical hospitals, covering medical bills, paying for hospital requirements, and feeding Batwa patients while they are at the hospitals. There are other ways we need help in addition to medical care. We are doing advocacy work with the Batwa to improve on their lives economically and socially and defending the rights of the Batwa people. It would be extremely impactful to be able to buy a motorcycle or small car to use as an ambulance to take Batwa patients to the hospital. We also have plans of building a Batwa clinic, that would be close to Batwa communities for easy treatment of Batwa patients. Malnutrition among the Batwa communities, hunger and famine are still a problem, so we are designing a plan to change this.
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<div>Work done by Tumwikirize Julius The Director Batwa Indigenous Empowerment Program. [email redacted]
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Anonymous

Marianne Tenger

Debra Newton

Batwa Indigenous Empowerment Program

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