tootolicious

child: beast or blessing?

Tootolicious is a social innovation that leverages the gift of children & child-likeness: innocence, opportunity and curiosity.

Tootolicious leverages creativity & innocence of children. The million-dollar question:
"Is a child an asset, liability or dividend?"

A child can be a(n)...
+ Asset: increases in value as it matures;
+ Blessing: a dividend on social investments;
+ Curse: a liability/deficit to reckon with.

Orphans (children) 1^/3
Aged under 35 80^%
Aged under 17 50^%
Lease on Life 20⁺

State of Childhood

Aug 2024

Mtoto/ mwana/ child can be a blessing if seen as a gift from God; a curse if perceived as one. A child has a lease of 20 years on life; the best of their life is ahead of them. But a child can also be a curse if handled with 'infantilism': dependency and inert.

Child Support Partners ...
+ ReFCAR (Streets)
+ WADEPA (Parents)
+ Madix (Software)
+ DIGIA (Investment)
+ UDIGE (Cooperative)
— Promoting Child-friendly Spaces

Orphanhood (O-State)

To develop in a balanced way, a child needs the love of both parents. Ideally, each parent will express a different and complementary aspect of it.
In "Do Orphans Lead the World? The origins of civilisation's illness" (Boris Sirbey 1978), research on 400+ world leaders revealed what these leaders had in common: daddy issues; they were all orphans

Idi Amin Dada (Uga): abandoned @ 8
Adolf Hitler (Germany)
Joseph Stalin
Cleopatra
Ramses II
Napoleon
Washington
Karl Marx
Roosevelt
Barack Obama

What an old man sees while lying down, a young man can never see even when he climbs up in the tallest tree"
Yoruba Proverb

Blueprint: Anatomy of Curious Child

raising them right

10S Themes: Child-Friendly
+ Synergies: participation
+ Survival: health
+ Skills: education
+ Surroundings: environment
+ Safety: protection
+ Showcase: inclusion
+ Smarts: innovation
+ Socials: leisure, play
+ Strangers: migration
+ Streetpreneurs: street brands
— 10S Themes: Promoting Child-friendly Spaces

The wise sayings of our forefathers have ample wisdom as follows...

Only the thing for which you have struggled lasts.
What a child says, he has heard at home.
One who has been bitten by a snake lives in fear of worms.
The child of an elephant will not be a dwarf.
A man's heart is not a sack open to all
An empty sack cannot stand
The heart is not a knee, it does not bend.
When your beard appears, childhood disappears.
The same water never runs into the same river.
An undecided man is the worst disaster of the village.

It takes a whole village to raise a child"
African Proverb

10Ps of Father Absence:
+ Pimp: more perversion
+ Posture: 2x suicidal
+ Priorities: 2x child obesity
+ Pregnancy: teens 7x risk
+ Poverty trap: 4x broke
+ Passout: 2x school dropout
+ Punching bag: abuse, neglect
+ Prison fodder: incacerated
+ Peer pressure: drugs, alcohol
+ Psyche profile: more vices
— Effects of Daddy Deficit (Research for 60+ years since 1960)

Causes of Daddy Deficit:
+ Dead: he passed away
+ Drunk: married to the bottle
+ Divorce: they separated
+ Disease: down with disease
+ Disability: has a disorder
+ Diaspora: works abroad
+ Deployed: posted far away
+ Deadbeat: aloof & unaware
+ Disconnected: by inlaws
+ Distance learning: study
— Father Absence: 10D Causes of Daddy Deficit.

Prodigal Son:

The Boy-Child in the modern family is plagued by a parenting crisis. The boy-child is abandoned, rejected, and abused. When is not parented right he ends up...

15k street-connected children, mostly boys (2017 MoGLSD & Retrak)
## boy children in remand homes
1mn boda boda riders (boys)
1mn taxi drivers (boys)
Many teenage taata: father by accident, boys having babies
More crime gangs of boys eg kabadiya, kifeesi
Broiler Boys: feed off their girlfriends
Couch Potatoes: married to the screen (TV and smatphone)
29 years: Young boys marrying late in life
Cohabiting couples: marriage are too expensive
Non-committal: boys unable to commit to long-term relationship
HIV/AIDS: more infections among young girls
12 years: first sexual debut of girls.
27.4% More Boys aged 15-19 years are out of school.

Prodigal Daughter:

The Girl-Child of today has odds stacked against them. The parenting deficit has affected her as in (UBOS Census 2014, SUPRE 2019)...

25% (1/4) girls become teenage mothers by age 19. Highest in Sub-Saharan Africa
50% (1/2) of girls are married before 18 years
4.1% aged (13 -18 years) have never been to school, especially girls;
2.5% of 6 – 12 years, and 22% of 13-18 years have already dropped out of school.
41.8% More girls aged 15-19 years are out of school.
11.7% wage increase for girls later life for extra year of girl-child education Vs. 9.6% for boys.
22.7% school dropout of girls is due to teenage pregnancy
+1. Every extra year a girl stays in school, the age at which she will have her first child is delayed.
27% Teenage pregnancy in rural
19% Teenage pregnancy in urban
34% Teenage pregnancy in girls from poor households Vs. wealthy (22%)

Tooto's Code of Honour

in honour of my father

`Walk of Honour`
+ Adulthood: boys to men
+ Birth: twins, homecoming
+ Coupling: fiancee to wife
+ Death: ancestorship, legends
+ Eldership: advice, wise words
+ Financial: homestead/kraal
+ Graduation: after a course
+ Housewarming: enter house
+ Identity: birth into new tribe
+ Job: acquired job/ promotion
+ Knighthood: amazon/warrior
+ Leadership: crown/ coronation
+ Mentor: the regent/mukuza
+ Nation-building: patriotism
+ Olympiad: athletics/ fitness
+ Prison: on release from hole
+ Quest: return - long journey
+ Recovery: from near death xp
+ Succession: your birthright
+ Treasure: get your inheritance
+ Undo: curses/ritual cleansing
+ Victory: after bloody battle
+ Welcome: grand homecoming
+ eXcellence: gold medal win
+ Yaya: choosing a nanny
+ Zoning: palace duty roster

Rites of Passage as:
+ Acquiring cattle
+ Bull jumping (Ethiopia)
+ Race with fiance (Karamoja)
+ Circumcision (baMasaaba)
+ Fattening Rooms (Ankole)
+ Sexual Cleansing
+ Birth Charts
+ Female Circumcision (Sebei)
+ Courtship Dances (Wodaabe)
+ Flogging (Fulani)
+ Cloth Wrapping (Ugbo)
+ Kisaakaate: cook (buGanda)
+ Warrior Camp (Masaai)
+ Dipo (Krobo, Ghana)
+ Kwanjula: wedding (buGanda)
+ Stick Fight (Surma, Ethiopia)
—Examples of rites of passage in Africa

There are currently 1.8bn young people around the world. That's a quarter of our population who are currently making the leap to adulthood. Yet, young people can't mark their smooth transition to adulhood if they don't have the opportunities to do so--such as going to school or seeking employment skills (GlobalCitizen.org).

Rites of passage hold significant importance in society due to their role in marking important milestones and transitioning individuals into new phases of life (Forth, 2018). There are five rites that identify five stages of progression through African society (Prof. Manu Ampim, manuampim.com): rite to...

Adulthood: Circumcision/Imbalu by baMasaaba boys @16, Warrior Camp of Masaai @10-20 years, Dipo of Krobo @(Ghana).
Birth: The ceremonies related to birth include naming by grandpa or auntie, nanny (mulerwa) welcomes children into the home, welcoming twins.
Coupling/Marriage: betrothal or rebirth into a new family eg, Kwanjula by baGanda and Kisaakaate for girls aged 8-12, Hamar Cow jumping (Ethiopians)
Death/Ancestorship: the making of a legend; acts of valour are recorded to inspire generations to come eg Okuyi memorials (Bantu tribes).
Eldership: when someone has lived a life of purpose and can advise the tribe and do priestly functions.

Unlike Western cultures that encourage individuals to find their own path in life by themselves, African cultures focus on building community through creating families (WorldAtlas.com).

In other cultures they also have rites of passage especially to guide the child on their journey of adolescence. There are a lot of lessons for African to learn and enrich her culture; dump the harmful aspects but enrich the positive aspects of culture through learning from:

Bar & Bat Mitzvah (Hebrew): @12-13
Big Game Hunt (Finland)
Bullet ants (Satere-Mawe) @13
Firewalk of faith (India)
Prom Party: High School Grad(USA)
Rumspringa (Amish) @16
Quinceanera (Hispanics) @15
Sweet 16 (USA) @16
Hunting: Inuits @11-12
Khatam Al Koran: Malaysia @11
Bungee Jump: Vanuatu Island @7-8
Seijin-no-Hi: Japanese @20
Ji Li & Guan Li: Confucians @20
Sunrise Dance: Apache girls
Walkabout: Australia
Confirmation: Christianity
Vision Quest: Native Americans
Baptism: Christianity
Genpuku: Japanese @10-20
Upanayana: Hindu @8-16
Breeching: Western Europe @4-8
Arangetram: Indian clasical dance
Potlatch (giving): Indigenous USA
Rumsasara: Buddhist (Sri Lanka)
Graduation Ceremonies (Western)
Retirement Parties (Global) @workplace
Citizenship Ceremonies (Global)

A united family eats at the same plate"
African Proverb

Ready to Join

family systems strengthening

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