TellZim Reporter
An alliance of five child-focused organizations recently released a statement condemning child sexual abuse which has gone rampant in the country, evidenced by reports of an eight and nine year old girls being impregnated.
The five organizations, which include Plan International, Save the Children, SOS Children’s Village and World Village reiterated that more needs to be done to prevent sexual abuse of girls as well as bringing perpetrators to book.
“Joining Forces Zimbabwe, an alliance of five child-focused agencies strongly condemns the continued horrendous sexual abuse of young girls. The recent shocking media reports on pre-teen girls from Tsholotsho and Bindura getting pregnant due to abuse shows that the violation of girls’ rights continues unabated.
“We applaud the reporting of such cases in order for justice to be served because reporting of girls’ sexual abuse is critical in bringing perpetrators to account. However it is clear that young girls continue to experience sexual abuse within their homes and communities, which are meant to be safe spaces” read part of the statement.
The statement went on to call on relevant stakeholders to work towards investing in mechanisms to raise awareness in communities as well strengthening early reporting to break the abuse cycle.
They also implored actors to strengthen services like psychosocial support, termination of pregnancy and other medical needs that may be required by survivors of sexual abuse.
“We are calling on all relevant actors as mandated by the National Case Management System who include government departments at all levels, Non-Governmental Organizations, Community Based Organizations and community level structures such as churches and traditional leaders to timeously and comprehensively respond to all cases of child sexual abuse. This will strengthen the confidence of communities in the protection system and encourage reporting of such criminal acts,” the statement read.
The alliance joined hands in 2017 to use their collective power to accelerate change against child abuse by piloting and scaling innovative and effective approaches worldwide that are driven by voices and needs of children.
