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

• To promote and safeguard the basic human right of children against sexual abuse.

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.