Africa-Press – Zambia. University Teaching Hospital Head of Sexual Gender-Based Violence and Child Abuse Centre, Rokaya Ginwalla says on average the institution attends to a hundred cases of child sexual abuse per month.
Dr Ginwalla further indicated that out of the 100 cases recorded most of them involve the girl child. She cited the hot season as the period when sexual child abuse cases are rampant compared to the cold season.
“On average we see about 100 cases every month while in the cold season between June and July we see 80 to 90 cases of abuse.
“In this time of the year we can see up to 120 and 130 cases during the host season,” She revealed. Dr Ginwalla however disclosed that the centre seldom attends to cases of boys having being sexually sodomized.
“Most of the cases that we see are girl child sexually abused but we also see boys as well two or three every month are boys who are sodomised.”
Dr Ginwalla hinted that 25 percent of the age group of children who are sexually abused are from zero to five years old. She further added that another 25 percent of children abused are between the ages of five to ten years.
“When you break down the age group 25 percent of children abused are between the age of zero to five. Between 5 to 10 years another twenty five percent, so 50 percent are below the age of 10 years and the other 50 percent are ages between 10 and 15 years.
Meanwhile Dr Ginwalla explained that the perpetrator of child sexual abuse are mostly close relative to the victims or children. She insisted that children often fall prey to people they trust and live with.
“These thing happen among close family members who are not a stranger to the child and most of the time its somebody the child trust, somebody the live with and know very well, they get trust of the child and start abusing them.”
This came to light during the launch of the walk from Lusaka to Kapiri Mposhi organized by a consortium of Civil Society organization. The walk is aimed at raising public awareness of child sexual abuse and sexual gender based violence.
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