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Street kids sexually abused - Scores being treated for STIs in Harare
Foster Dongozi, The Standard (Zimbabwe)
October 10, 2004

Listen to Dr Mwazha discuss health care for street children in Harare

UP to eight children who live on the streets of Harare are being treated everyday for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) by a Sunningdale based medical practitioner.

Most of the street children say well-to-do men and women of Harare infected them with the STIs, The Standard can reveal.

A Harare medical doctor, Masimba Mwazha, who has offered to treat children on the streets because they have no access to adequate medical facilities, made the startling revelations.

Dr Mwazha is a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church and attends to the children referred to him by Streets Ahead Drop-in Centre.

"A few weeks ago there was an outbreak of STIs and I asked one of the children the reason behind the outbreak. He explained that there was a Harare woman who was driving around at night and taking boys from the street to some areas where she would have sex with them. The children say the woman did the same thing with many other boys. She rewards them with food," Dr Mwazha said.

Mwazha said in addition, male perverts were luring some of the boys on the street into cars or were taking them to houses, where they were sodomised or asked to perform oral sex.

He said, while other street children caused some of the infections, perverts were to blame for a large number of the STIs.

Both girls and boys were at risk with some of them as young as 12 falling pregnant. "Eighty percent of the cases that I attend to are STIs while the rest are tuberculosis, skin diseases, pneumonia and colds," he said.

The Standard in interviews, with some of the children living on the streets of Harare, was able to confirm Dr Mwazha's findings.

Krainos, who said he came from Shamva, was initially not willing to talk to the news crew, saying he did not talk to strangers.

However, after much persuasion, he opened up.

He said:-" Rich people who drive very beautiful cars have for a long time been picking on street-kids the same way men pick prostitutes.

"Those who pick children off the streets are men and women, black and white. Boys are usually offered piece-jobs by men or women and then driven to houses where they are first asked to take a bath before being sexually abused."

He said while some boys were given money or goods after the abuse, others were chased away from the houses because they were accused of stealing money.

In most instances, said Krainos, the abuses took place in parked cars often in dark secluded spots.

Dr Mwazha said the situation could be more widespread as he only attended to children who were referred by the Streets Ahead Drop in Centre.

He said although he was not being paid for services he was providing, his job would be easier if some sections of the medical fraternity helped with drugs and other related material.

Mwazha said the issue of street children needed attention by all sectors of society. Sending the children back onto the streets only prolonged the problem.

The director of Streets Ahead, Patience Musanhu, said after experiencing the harsh life on the streets, many children were prepared to re-unite with their families.

"With adequate resources, we would be able to re-unite up to six children a week with their families but low finances are hindering our operations," said Musanhu.

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