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Sexual abuse rife on the streets

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Children living on the streets are exposed to a raft of abuses on a daily basis and are vulnerable to sexual exploitation.

Children living on the streets are exposed to a raft of abuses on a daily basis and are vulnerable to sexual exploitation which has seen incidence of sexually transmitted infections among them increase.

By Michelle Chifamba

Investigations have revealed that most of the perpetrators, both men and women, are people of influence in society and often use their financial muscle to have their way with the vulnerable children. The Consortium for Street Children, an international member–based network dedicated to promoting and advocating for the rights of street children, says there are multiple factors that increase lead to children living and working on the streets.

The consortium said: “Due to unemployment, ravaging effects of the HIV and Aids pandemic, family poverty, persistent droughts, family breakdowns, crime, neglect, physical and sexual abuse some children have found themselves living outside the family environment.”

Although there are no spot–on statistics, children’s organisations are convinced cases of child sexual abuse are on a sharp ascent, but often go unreported due to red tape bottlenecks that street children are not prepared to deal with.

Teenage girls that have made the streets their home, surviving through begging in the busy streets of Harare, are at greater risk of infections like HIV, genital warts and herpes as they use sex to access life’s necessities such as money and food. In the process, many of them die due to lack of access to medication.

“Though they seem content with their surroundings, the young girls and boys of the street are exposed to various challenges in life. As the deadly pandemic has engulfed the better part of humankind, these children on the streets of Harare are at much greater risk contracting the deadly disease,” a gender activist Sibongile Nyoni, from the Norton-based non-governmental organisation (NGO).

She said the problem cuts across gender as girls were raped by older men while boys are abused by older women, who are often well–to–do people in society. “It is frightening because those people who are supposed to be protecting the children are the ones abusing them,” Nyoni said.

According to Streets Ahead, an NGO which cares for street children and provides them with health education, medication and behavioural change techniques, more than 30 cases of children suffering from sexually transmitted infections, are reported on a monthly basis in Harare.

“We have more than 150 street children coming in on a monthly basis to get letters for them to receive free treatment for sexually transmitted diseases and the age group is worrying as most of them are below the age of 16. These children are continuously being exposed to the HIV virus,” said the Streets Ahead outreach programmes officer, Jack Maravanyika.

An 18–year–old street dealer, identified only as Nollen, believes the streets are not a good place to be for girls. A victim of rape, she contends with the struggle of raising a child in the streets. “I have never met my real parents. The streets have become my home. I don’t enjoy this life and envy girls my age, but I don’t have a choice. This is a very painful life, but we have to endure,” said Nollen on the verge of tears.

According to the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund 2010 report, out of the country’s 1,3 million orphans, approximately 100 000 are living on their own in child-headed households.

More than a decade of socio- economic and political crisis in the country has spawned many children to work and live in the streets exposing them to various forms of abuse.

“In Zimbabwe, children work as street vendors and socio- economic crisis in the country may have worsened the plight. Increased poverty, political violence and the HIV and Aids pandemic have worsened the plight for children,” says Unicef.

A documentary on the lives of street kids complied by SafAids, says that access to contraceptives such as condoms and other family planning methods remains a tall order for girls on the streets which has forced them to buy contraceptives from street vendors or collect those that have already expired and thrown to the rubbish bins.

A social commentator and gender activist Prisca Zulu said it is high time government puts the plight of street children into serious consideration.

“We all understand that street children exist almost in every country and in many parts of the continent, but we should also take their plight seriously. This world is so cruel and these children are at even greater risk of dying from any ailment. Now that normal people abuse and rape them it is high time that the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare and the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare should take a stand in helping these innocent souls,” said Zulu.