Abstract
This article discusses the challenges faced by role players who work with survivors of child sexual abuse within the Victim-Friendly System. The Victim Friendly System represents a confluence of multi-sectorial professional interventions targeting child sexual abuse survivors in Zimbabwe. Professionals involved in the Victim-Friendly System include social workers, medical doctors, nurses, police, as well as role players within the justice system such as magistrates and prosecutors, counsellors, educationists and psychologists. The findings of this qualitative study show that professionals work within the context of a shrinking economy that has given rise to a plethora of challenges that include, among other things, staff and skills shortages, lack of financial and material resources, poor access to proper infrastructure and other logistical constrains. The authors end the paper by discussing recommendations that have policy, administrative and professional implications
Highlights
This article explores the challenges faced by social workers, medical doctors, nurses, police, magistrates, prosecutors, counsellors, teachers and psychologists working in the Victim-Friendly System (VFS)
The Victim-Friendly System (VFS) was chosen as the unit of analysis in order to understand child sexual abuse and the challenges faced by VFS stakeholders
“We have identified issues, for example, communication barriers ... the police, the magistrate even other sectors who are supporting the system and health and we realise they do not have communication skills, for example, sign language to communicate with these people [child sexual abuse survivors].” (Participant 10)
Summary
This article explores the challenges faced by social workers, medical doctors, nurses, police, magistrates, prosecutors, counsellors, teachers and psychologists working in the Victim-Friendly System (VFS). Various scholars challenge the assumption that CSA is an exclusively Western problem (Jones & Jemmott, 2009; Sossou & Yogtiba, 2009; Zimbabwe National Statistical Agency, United Nations Children’s Fund and Collaborating Center; Lalor & McElvaney, 2010; Judical Service Commission 2012; Bhattacharya & Nair 2014 and Jones & Florek, 2015). In Zimbabwe, where this study was done, the National Baseline Survey on the life experiences of adolescents in Zimbabwe reported that almost one third of females and one in ten males aged between 18 and 24 years experienced sexual violence (Zimbabwe National Statistical Agency, United Nations Children’s Fund & Collaborating Center for Operational Research and Evaluation (2013). The VFS was established to provide a community of medical, psychological, judicial and social services that mitigate the negative effects of CSA (Judicial Service Commission, 2012)
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