Activity: Visitation to the Child Custody Centre at Upanga, Dar es Salaam.

Coordinated by: Innocent Swai, (Legal Officer)

Introduction

On 16^th March 2024, the Firm conducted its first quarter Corporate Social Responsibility activity for the year 2024 by visiting a Child Custody Center (Mahabusu ya Watoto) located at Upanga in Dar es Salaam.

The Child Custody Centre is established and governed by the Law of the Child Act and its Regulations to keep in custody children who have been accused of committing criminal offences while they wait for the hearing of their cases.

Objective

The purpose of this visit was to engage with the children under custody, understand their needs, and explore opportunities for providing support and assistance.

We were provided with the list of things needed by the facility for their day-to-day operations and for the children’s wellbeing. The list included computers and printers; furniture such as chairs, dining tables, and classroom desks; televisions, refrigerators, hair clippers, and sewing machines.

The Firm was able to provide 20 plastic chairs and one football to the facility, with the aim to improve the children’s sitting environment.

Activities Conducted

• The Welcome Session

QnB Law team arrived at the facility at around 10:30 am and was welcomed by the facility Manager Mr. Darius Damas, who gave us a short introduction of the facility.  On that particular day, the facility had a total number of twenty-four (24) children in custody, whereby twenty-three (23) of them were boys. After such introduction, we were allowed to meet the children.

• Interactive Session

After the introduction, we were able to interact with the children by listening to their stories and dreams, sharing words of encouragement and advice, and responding to their questions.

Through this interactive session, we were able to learn how the facility plays a crucial role in rehabilitating the behaviours of the children by impacting necessary skills including the most important one ‘self-expression skill’.

• Gifts Handover and Group Photo Session

After the wonderful interaction session with the children, the Firm’s Managing Partner led the team in handing over the chairs and a football to the facility’s Manager as our humble part of contribution to the work being done by the facility. The handover activity was followed by a group photo session and a word of thanks and goodbye.

Conclusion

The visit to the Child Custody Center was an enlightening experience, highlighting the importance of supporting vulnerable children in our community. Witnessing the resilience, dreams, and potentials of those children under custody was and will continue to be our inspiration in contributing our skills, time, and resources, however limited, to creating a more compassionate and inclusive society.

Prepared by:

Innocent Swai, Legal Officer.