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Child sexual abuse rampant: World Vision survey
By Margaret Alerotek on 24 Jul 2007
Rampant child sexual abuse was revealed when World Vision disseminated findings about HIV and AIDS core models to Uganda stakeholders including ministerial departments and non-government organisations.
World Vision shared information with the Uganda government’s departments of Probation and Social Welfare, Education, Gender and Community Development, Police for child protection, Health Services and NGOs such as Mild May, One World Uganda and German Medical Team.
Although findings revealed that World Vision’s ‘Channel of Hope’ and Community Care Coalitions Models proved to be effective in transforming people’s attitudes towards those affected by HIV and AIDS, sexual abuse is the biggest problem facing children in Kiboga district, in the central province of Uganda, where the survey was conducted.
“My step-father defiles and sexually harasses me saying he is the one who helped me get into World Vision, where I was able to get blanket, mosquito net, a goat and books,” a child respondent quoted in the report.
According to the survey, sexual coercion was found to be a prominent factor in children’s initiation of sexual intercourse. The findings revealed that although girls were significantly more likely to report their first sexual encounter as ‘coerced’, significant proportions of boys experienced sexual abuse as well.
According to World Vision Katwe Area Development Program Manager, Martin Okello, the assessment sampled 511 households and more than 2,000 girls and boys aged between 10 -17 were interviewed. At the baseline study, 60 percent of girls aged 10-17 were sexually abused and after World Vision’s awareness intervention was reduced to 53 percent. Some 13 percent of boys aged 10-17 were sexually abused, with the number remaining the same after awareness intervention.
At the national level, according to statistics from African Network for Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN), child sexual abuse is the most common form of abuse in Uganda and is on the increase. Of cases reported to the organisation in 2007, child sexual abuse ranked highest with 80.6 percent followed by neglect at 11.2 percent and physical abuse at 8.2 percent, according to Program Officer, Research and Information Policy Advocacy of ANNPCAN, Topher Mugumya.
“Sexual abuse is unacceptably increasing in Uganda. In 2006 alone, Uganda Police recorded 5,693 cases of defilement. This is alarmingly high considering that most sexual abuse cases are never reported,” said Topher.
“With such nauseating statistics, we have on our hands children with ruptured sexual organs, STDs including HIV and AIDS, children begetting children, children with a low self-esteem and innumerable school dropouts.”
The challenge of curbing the rate of child sexual abuse was mainly attributed to cultural beliefs like early marriage, especially in Dwaniro county; one of the communities that was covered in the study. In this particular community, a pastoral one, a girl is supposed to be married off at the age of 14, whether she is ready or not.
World Vision’s HIV and AIDS Team Leader, Jenninah Kabiswa said that child sexual abuse, as the biggest problem to children everywhere in Uganda, is not being properly addressed by the relevant Uganda line ministries and national and international agencies operating in the country. World Vision is in the process of modifying its HIV prevention model to go beyond training children to become peer educators. It also aims to include positive parenting, and empower communities to carry out advocacy against issues such as child sexual abuse.
“We are trying to get as many players as we can on board to take up the issues with people in governments and schools so that we come up with approaches to curb the sexual abuse that is crippling the future of very many children,” said Jenninah.
As children cannot negotiate for the use of condoms at the time of forced sexual intercourse, a number of children end up contracting the HIV virus. Statistics at Buxomer Health Centre in Kiboga district indicate that the HIV infection rate in Katwe Sub County, where the survey was carried out, is at 17 percent compared to the national rate of 6.7 percent, according to the Uganda Ministry of Health.
‘Channels of Hope’, an HIV and AIDS model that primarily targets religious leaders, had proved vital to exposing more people to HIV information, reduced myths around the epidemic (that it is a punishment from God), lessened stigma surrounding people affected, and increased positive HIV behaviors; and access to Voluntary counseling and Testing (VCT). World Vision first piloted this model in two ADPs: Kasangombe in Luwero district (a place once terribly ravaged by the HIV virus in the 1980s) and Kaswa in Mukono district.
Channels of Hope, has for the last five years been effectively implemented in Katwe and other ADPs, changing the negative attitudes of church leaders and encouraging them to counsel and care for people affected by HIV and AIDS, according to Okello.
“The church leaders used to look at AIDS patients as sinners being punished by God and for that matter they did not want to associate with them. However, the Channels of Hope has tremendously transformed their attitudes that they now care for and love them,” said Okello.
The survey, conducted by World Vision’s HIV and AIDS Hope Team, was also carried out in other African countries where the organisation operates.
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