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Violence against girls deters growth and development
Betty Makoni, Girl Child Network (GCN)
March 11, 2006

Physical, emotional, social, political intrusion and invasion of the girls' spaces by socially, economically and politically advantaged persons with the sole purpose of causing physical, mental, emotional and psychological harm is rampant in the home, school and community.

There are maximum benefits derived from causing harm on the girl child by those better placed and in advantageous positions in the home, school and community. The girl becomes afraid and gives in to one’s sexual desires, offers free labor, runs away and leaves more room for others, becomes afraid and succumbs to social, sexual and economic slavery .Violence perpetrated against girls in most communities is taken as norm and perpetrated by men, women and boys either directly or indirectly and this emanates from the socialization process where the girls' position is less regarded for girls are minors as children and the weaker sex as women. Girls are affected by both age and gender and endure combined violence perpetrated against both women and children

At a school in Glen View one girl protested against a well known teacher who is known to have abused girls at the school

I don’t know whether to call him my teacher
Or Monica’s husband
Or Prisca’s sugar daddy
In 3A1 he kissed Teclar
In 4A1 he impregnated Daisy
In 2A2 he fondled Lucia’s breasts
In his storeroom I can’t say
Only the books are witnesses
I do not know whether to call him
My teacher, cheater, lover boy, abuser or user
Where do you stand cheater?

Girl Child Network continues to record an increase in cases of child sexual abuse and girls are raped when they are as young as 3 days, one week or one month and evidently girls lives are lost as soon as they are born. Rapist to Child HIV transmission is now more rampant than the Parent to Child HIV transmission due to rape .

To girls society has become an unfair environment because of the many violent encounters that they face each and every day because of age and gender. The gender concept is therefore focused on socially constructed differences between men and women based on shared expectations and norms within a society. It is also based on culturally ascribed set of characteristics that define what it is to be a man or woman looking at their behavior, characteristics and roles. The age concept focuses on the number of years and experiences of a human being. In this case a child is the youngest and most vulnerable human being. Based on the two concepts of age and gender, society is generally agreed that the girl child is the most vulnerable for she has to survive against a background where the woman, fairer sex is unjustly treated and taken as a second class citizen in most societies and where as a child one solely depends on adults for survival who can choose to take care or not, provide or not provide the three basic needs of food, shelter and clothing. The world over the issues of women and children take center stage and if girls are both women and children it automatically entails their issues being dealt with separately and as a core group. This is not the case in many instances as it is evident that in many studies that have been conducted before girls are either bunched with women or children and in making recommendations it has proved difficult whether to classify girls` problems as women’s problems or children’s problems for girls belong to both.

Child sexual abuse continues to present obstacles to the holistic empowerment of the girl child hence there is still a lot that call for action. The trend of child sexual abuse has been more pronounced among religious sects. Public and domestic virginity testing is rampant in religious sects like the apostolic churches . These sects have displayed sophisticated and complex ways of institutionalising child sexual abuse . In 2004 GCN had to rescue a ten-year girl forcibly married off in one of the religious sects. The man was sentenced to a wholly six months suspension jail term

Girl Child Network estimates that at least an average 700 girls are raped in each of Zimbabwe`s 58 districts per year giving a rough estimate of 40 000 cases of rape annually in Zimbabwe. There is a marked increase in the involvement of well to do and influential people in the abuse of girls. Many cases of child sexual abuse involve people within the upper echelons of the society such as government officials, political leaders, church leaders, professionals such as doctors and teachers, with a prominent provincial medical doctor sexually abusing several girls within a short period of time. At the moment director of Girl Child Network is has been threatened with death after assisting a case of a housemaid who was allegedly raped by a highly ranked Reverend cum politician. Furthermore, there is a worrying increase in the wholesale sexual abuse of young girls in schools. A classical example being the abuse of 34 schoolgirls at Macheke Primary school in Mashonaland East Province, six girls at Nyamaende primary school in Mutasa district and now investigations are going on after revelations that six girls were allegedly sexually abused at a boarding school in Mhondoro.

Violence against girls should be tackled more proactively as this is a deterrent factor of girls reaching their potential for there is no conducive environment in the home, school and community for girls to challenge some injustices perpetrated against them by men, women and boys when they are still young in the home (where the girl is born and brought up) the school (where the girl is educated and socialized) and the community (where the girl is expected to be an active player in development socially, economically and politically) and is expected to contribute at an equal footing with men, boys and women.

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