It offers comprehensive care for sexually
abused children by doing case management of victims and their
families, organizing awareness
activities for the public and providing relevant training for
stakeholders such as schools, police the judiciary and others.
OBJECTIVES OF THE CHILD
SEXUAL ABUSE PROJECT
Broad goals
Objectives
-
To minimize the effects of the sexual
abuse trauma to the child and other stakeholders by
providing moral and practical support to the victims of
sexual abuse.
-
To acquire in depth information and data
on the causes of the problem and address it at all relevant
sectors of the society both from the point of view of the
victim and the perpetrator.
-
To strengthen the Victim Friendly
Initiative in order to be accessible and fully utilized for
the benefit of the victims.
-
To contribute to the effective handling
of child abuse cases through appropriate training of
stakeholders in counselling techniques.
-
To create awareness of the seriousness of
the problem by disseminating information to appropriate
stakeholders and policy makers
SERVICES OFFERED BY THE
CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE PROJECT
-
High quality counselling services for the
victims of child sexual abuse and all those affected.
-
Support in interaction with the police
and the legal system.
-
Support high quality medical care
including:
- Initial examination for legal purposes
- Prevention of sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy
- Post-exposure prophylaxis of HIV infection.
-
Social care to:
- encourage continuation of education
- seek for safe shelter/safe environment if need be
- offer any other intervention that would minimize the
impact of the abuse
-
Awareness through dissemination of
information.
CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE PROJECT
BACKGROUND
Over the years we have come across the acute
problem of child sexual abuse cases and the limited services
available for the effective management of such cases. Since
November 2005, with the assistance of the Swiss Embassy we
undertook a study in the Bulawayo area to "establish at which
junctures the present system does not function in the best
interest of the victims, thus identifying when and how input
into this system is needed so as to serve the needs of sexually
abused children in a professionally satisfactory and
comprehensive way".
The findings of this study show that although
the system in Zimbabwe is well structured in theory (with proper
legislation and establishment of victim friendly services),
there is a collapse of these structures either because of the
brain drain (very few social workers are still working in the
social services departments) or extremely limited resources
(especially in transport facilities and social support). There
are some steps that need to be taken in the case of rape that
refer to a number of procedures and services that have to do
with the police, hospitals, legal system and welfare
departments. Within this context we saw that although there are
several organizations that include child sexual abuse as part of
their work and their interests there has been no organization
that follows closely the cases in a comprehensive manner that
caters for all the aspects of the problem, namely the legal,
medical and psychosocial. In addition many cases have material
needs unmet and live in total destitution that can perpetuate
the problem when sex can be used as a means of survival.
In addition it is our strong belief that
protection of children from sexual abuse is a fundamental
human/child right and it is imperative that such right must be
safeguarded through both direct services to the victims and
public awareness on the issue.
It is well known that child sexual abuse
cases are increasing daily in Zimbabwe. During our six month
study on the effective management of such cases we found that
although there is a well-structured system put in place, there
are certain constraints that do not make these services fully
utilized by the victims of sexual abuse. In most cases the
victims are not capable of pursuing their cases through the
judiciary system or have access to other facilities i.e. post
exposure prophylaxis, due to lack of appropriate knowledge
and/or lack of resources (even for transport fares). There is
need to support the victim and the other stakeholders involved
such as the family, school etc. to make use of the existing
system by escorting them to the medical, legal and other
procedures. There is a need to coordinate and sometimes lead the
victims from one service to the other and finally help them to
make a viable plan for their future.
CONTACT offers a
comprehensive, personalized service that caters for all the
above issues.
|