Are our efforts enough to end sexual abuse of young girls?

Are our efforts enough to end the sexual abuse of young girls?

…UNPFA seeks government and stakeholder support

By Robert Zvidza

Tamari’s* (not her real name) life turned gloomy when she lost her mother at the age of two. As that was not enough, her father passed on two years later. They both succumbed to HIV and AIDS-related illnesses. With no one to look after her and send her to school, she lived a life of hopping from one residence to another.

First to take Tamari on board were her grandparents who could not send her to school.  An uncle who stayed in Harare offered to take her to the city and enroll her at a local school.

The uncle was however not the Good Samaritan he portrayed when he took her in. Instead of enrolling her in school, Tamari was sent to work instead. She performed menial jobs some of which were physically challenging for her age. Her supposed guardian also turned violent and abusive. The abuse grew worse as she grew older.

One moment, the uncle even told her direct in her face that he wanted to make her his wife. Burdened by the way she lived, she reported the abuse to her aunt who then took her away from the city. She was sent to stay with her sister at a certain farm. Tamari’s life did not change despite this movement as her sister again failed to send her to school. The sister then sent her back to their rural home to live with the grandparents in the village. At that tender age, Tamari would get in and out of school.

The grandparents however tried to send her to school but not on a fulltime basis. On the days she was allowed to go, Tamari had to contend with traveling a long distance and on an empty stomach due to lack of food. They hardly had anything to eat as a family until her guardians thought to ‘invest’ through marrying off the young vulnerable girl to an older man in exchange for food.

A hasty marriage was arranged between the young Tamari and an elderly neighbour but a timely intervention stopped the ill-fated arrangement through an empowerment programme - Sista2Sista Club which she eventually joined.

“When Tamari joined the club, she was very quiet and reserved. She kept to herself a lot and it took a long time to open up to me and the group,” said the Club’s mentor in her testimony.

Tamari was then to spill the beans on the impending marriage and abuses. The authorities were then alerted for corrective action on the abuses to be taken.

Tamari is back at school now and has proven to be academically gifted, bagging several awards of excellence at her school.

“I want to join the police so that I can protect other young girls from being abused,” she said in her written testimony.

Tamari’s story can be a graphic representation of many other stories of girls who are suffering discrimination and violent abuses often abetted by deep poverty and lack of empowerment in rural Zimbabwe. Tamari might have been saved from the jaws of abuse but many remain in need for that timely intervention.

Statistics provided by the United Nations Population Fund (UNPFA) Assistant Representative in Zimbabwe, Ms. Abigirl Musemburi posits that young persons, especially teenage girls continue to be forced into child marriages, early pregnancy, and dropping from school. These abuses, she notes, have debilitating effects on their health. Other statistics provided by the UNFPA also indicate that Zimbabwe is ranked number 41 in the list of countries with an unacceptably high prevalence rate of child marriages with 32.8 percent of girls married before the age of 18.

The girl child is also not safe from HIV and AIDS as its prevalence is higher in girls than in boys. Of the 40 percent of the new infections in teenagers, two-thirds of the burden is on girls.

During the recently held ‘Teen Talk’ Intergenerational Dialogue held at the National Arts Gallery to mark the celebrations of the 2016 World Population Day, testimonies from teenagers drawn from various provinces laid bare some of the challenges teenage girls are facing in their localities. The dialogue ran under the theme; Harnessing the Demographic Dividend through Investment in Teenage Girls.

The event was jointly organised by UNPFA in partnership with Students and Youth Working on Reproductive Health Action Team (SAYWHAT). Refreshing though was the fact that, these challenges were already overcome as the UNFPA’s Integrated Support Programme, which has given birth to Sista2Sista programme supported by the governments of Britain, Ireland, and Sweden. The programme is implemented with the help of the Government of Zimbabwe through the Ministry of Health and Child Care.

Launched in September 2013, Sista2Sista is a girls-only club which aims at creating safe spaces for mentoring vulnerable adolescent girls, a space where they can speak with mentors and each other about their problems and receive information, counseling, and support.

The Sista2Sista Programme is being implemented in 26 districts across Zimbabwe by various other partner organisations under UNFPA like Family Aids Care and Trust, Zimbabwe AIDS Prevention and Support Organisation (ZAPSO), Regai Dzive Shiri (RDS) and Zimbabwe Community Health Research (ZiChiRe) among others.

The ‘Teen Talk’ Intergenerational Dialogue saw young girls in Sista2Sista Clubs drawn from Mashonaland West, Central, East and Harare’s Epworth and Hopley engaging with prominent women in leadership drawn from the corporate world, civic organisations, the civil service and indigenous business women.

Among the successful mentors present were,  the Police Spokesperson, Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba, TelOne Chief Executive Officer, Ms. Chipo Mtasa, Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda who is an Internationally acclaimed gender activist and Ms. Beatrice Tonhodzai the PR and Corporate Affairs Manager for Zim Papers, renowned fashion designer Joyce Chimanye, Nyengeterai Mahaka, Founder and CEO of the True Reflections, Revai Makanje, Aalbaek, UN Women Deputy Representative, Abigail Msemburi, UNFPA, Assistant Representative as well as the Child President Tinaye Mbavari.

The mentors who all have varying backgrounds shared their experiences with the girls on how they managed to make it to the top. In turn the girls had to share their experiences as well as problems they are facing in their societies. A sister to sister approach was used in these dialogues with the girls taking notes to enable a dialogue. The girls had to suggest ways in which the government and other stakeholders could do to invest in young girls.

Among many other points, the girls noted that the empowerment programmes were much limited to towns and as such there was a need to spread the wings to deep remote areas. Others suggested for more such dialogues to increase awareness and inspire girls from different backgrounds.

From the interactions with these top female leaders, the young girls must have left the venue a rejuvenated lot with others ready to face the world on their own.

Tamari’s experience and a whole lot of other testimonies indicate that the girl child is vulnerable to all sorts of abuse, discrimination, and are exposed to HIV and AIDS risk, but it has to take the government and other stakeholders, parents and guardians for the girls to rise up to these challenges and succeed.

The UNPFA Zimbabwe Country representative, Mr. Cheikh Tidiane Cisse might have put it correctly when he said in his message for the 2016 World Population Day Celebrations;

“When a teenage girl has the power, the means and the information to make her own decisions in life, she is most likely to overcome obstacles that stand between her and her healthy productive future. This will benefit her family and her community.

“...without concerted efforts by all stakeholders to invest in young girls, the girl’s future will remain bleak. Thus, all stakeholders have an important role to play in shaping policies and programmes that affect teenage girls’ lives. This way, the country is better positioned to reap the demographic dividend, which can propel economic growth to combat poverty.”