Girl Child Sexual Abuse in Lusaka Urban

Abstract

The study on girl child sexual abuse and whose findings are presented in this article
 was conducted in 2010 as an academic requirement for the purpose of completing a
 Master’s degree in Gender Studies at the University of Zambia.
 This article outlines issues of sexual abuse and the various reasons why under-age
 girls are more vulnerable to sexual abuse, cultural beliefs with regard to sexual abuse,
 gender and power relations and sexual abuse, and existing community programmes and
 knowledge levels, and institutional mechanisms of the sexual abuse case reporting in
 Lusaka urban. The article has drawn conclusions and recommendations for enhancing
 the protection of the children against child sexual abuse. By conducting a study that
 comprehensively assesses the types of programmes and perceived implementation
 gaps from Lusaka, this report poses specific policy and structural recommendations
 on how best to address the existing problem of increased vulnerability of under-age
 girls to sexual abuse.
 Child sexual abuse is a form of abuse in which a child is abused for the sexual
 gratification of an adult or older adolescent (CHIN, 2005: 53). Child sexual abuse is
 the actual or the likely sexual exploitation of a child and includes rape, incest and all
 forms of sexual activity (VSO, 2008: 2). In Zambia, anyone under the age of sixteen
 is classified as a child.
 Researchers cite various reasons why child sexual abuse is so common: Gender
 power relations (patriarchy views which place women and children in lower positions),
 poverty, a legacy of violent homes, power relations between children and adults, and
 cultural beliefs.
 The research was an exploratory study undertaken in Lusaka urban and endeavored
 to explore why the problem of sexual abuse was persistent and why under-age children
 were vulnerable to it. Using purposive and simple random sampling, a sample size of
 seventy was arrived at and both qualitative and quantitative approaches of research
 were employed. The data was then analysed manually and by Statistical Package for
 Social Science (SPSS).
 The institutions visited were: Ministry of Community Development and Social
 Welfare, Women and Law in Southern Africa Trust, The Child Protection Unit of
 the Zambia Police Service, Young Women Christian Association, Isubilo Orphanage
 and Drop-in Centre and Jesus Cares Ministries Orphanage. Additionally, community
 members from Chawama, Mtendere and Kabwata compounds were interviewed for
 more insight into the study.
 The study results showed that under-age girl-children were more vulnerable to sexual
 abuse because they were easy to coerce, threaten, lure and could be more trusting
 than much older girls. Further, the study revealed that gender-power relations, power
 relations between children and adults, cultural beliefs and community programmes on
 sexual abuse played a role in girl child sexual abuse.
 The overall study recommendations were coined from the outcomes and
 conclusions made in the study as follows: children needed more focused education
 to increase their knowledge about child sexual abuse; intensify funding injections
 into already functional community and school programmes, for example the School
 Liaison Programme under the Zambia Police Service; putting in place a holistic
 approach to sensitise community members centring on encroaching cultural norms
 and practices that perpetrate child sexual abuse; there was need to intensify and widen
 the coverage of programmes on child sexual abuse clearly stipulating and defining
 types of sexual abuse; the law and punishment for perpetrators; perceived gaps in the
 awareness programmes and institutional mechanism for sexual abuse case reporting
 was bureaucratically long, long court procedures and negative cultural doctrines also
 played a role and as such needed attention.