By A Correspondent- The doctor broke the news to the family a day after their pregnant 14 year old’s hospitalisation.

It was going to be impossible to terminate the pregnancy because the foetus was now 24 weeks old.

A victim of rape, the minor’s father *Amos Butama* was dejected.

“I was hoping that the pregnancy could be terminated and my daughter would get on with her life. But now I fear for her life, I fear for her health.”

The 45 year old father of 6 including the victim of rape told ZimEye:

“The doctor said my daughter is too young to deliver and she may face complications while giving birth which may also cost her life or that of the baby. She needs specialist care but I cannot afford it.”

 ZimEye ran a story on how the family was divided on how to treat the rape case after the minor revealed that the perpetrator was a very close relative.

The matter is still at the courts.

While it is clearly evident that the perpetrator will face justice, it is the minor whose life is at stake.

Said her father:

“I do not know what to say to her. She is withdrawn and because she is still a child, I do not know whether she will be able to fit into her new role as a mother. It is a child bearing another child. It is not her fault that she is a victim of rape and I think more should be done to help such children in her circumstances.

She was raped but could not disclose this to anyone until it was too late. I also blame myself because I should have done more to be close to my baby but I relegated everything to my mother while I focused on looking for money.”

The minor is one of the many rural children whose rights are violated but they do not have access to services that their counterparts in the city have.

The rape occurred in Hwedza, Manicaland.

Added a social worker only identified herself as Rutendo:

“Rural children should have equal access to services. Maybe if the minor had a mobile phone or there was a nearest call centre, she would have sought help. Remember, the perpetrators threaten the minors not to disclose this to anyone and as children, they comply. More needs to be done to guarantee their safety and access to services.”

The UNCRC identifies four core principles that grant children equal value and guarantee them the necessary protection.

These are non discrimination, best interests of the child, the right to survival and development and the views of the child.

States principle 4 of the convention formulated in Article 12:1 which states that:

“States parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the rights to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the view of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child.”

Childline Zimbabwe, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) provides a free telephone helpline to report cases of child abuse where several volunteers sit in front of phones answering the emergency calls to the number ‘116’ from vulnerable children.

Children who may be experiencing violence, are assisted and case information is captured while they are provided with the psycho-social support among a host of other services.

The organisation also provides face-to-face counselling for affected children and caregivers in their Drop-in Centres: child-friendly, confidential spaces for children to share their experiences and express their emotions.

Nationally, there are four Call Centres, 33 Drop-in Centres, and over 400 volunteer counsellors working for free to give children support.

The Family Support Trust (FST), is another NGO located at Harare Central Hospital, whose aim is to provide free access to medical and psychological service to the child survivors of sexual violence, healing them in a safe and child-friendly space.

Childline 116 works closely with FST, by referring call-in survivors who need treatment to them.

The Butamas however, were not even aware of the existence of these organisations. Was this sheer ignorance on their part or there were other reasons?

“I have heard about Childline, but I never thought that this could happen to my daughter. I should have told her,” said Butama with regret evident on his face.

A report titled “Violence Against Women and Girls During the Covid-19 Crisis in Zimbabwe”, gathered data from five non-governmental organisations working with survivors of gender-based violence, including the Musasa Project, the Adult Rape Clinic and the Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association noted that cases of physical violence went up by 38,5 percent during April and May 2020.

Another report by the Stopping Abuse and Female Exploitation Zimbabwe (SAFE) authored by Rebekah Martin and Veronica Ahlenback titled “Evidence Synthesis: Secondary impacts of COVID-19 on gender-based violence (GBV) against women and girls in Zimbabwe”, also confirmed that gender based violence (GBV) service providers in Zimbabwe recorded an increase in reported GBV cases compared to trends prior to the lockdown.

Revealed the report:

“Increases in psychological, physical, economic and sexual violence, and increases in the severity of this violence, have been reported in Zimbabwe (OCHA, 2020a).

Emerging evidence in Zimbabwe indicates that poor women, rural women, women and girls with disabilities, adolescent girls and young women, older women, LBTQI+ women, women and girls with HIV, migrant women and women in quarantine facilities, and refugee women are disproportionately affected.”

The UN Women (2020b) in that same report is quoted confirming that “regional evidence highlights that women in rural areas are particularly vulnerable to the effects of GBV due to less access to response services in rural areas.”

However, the evidence synthesis did not identified any data from Zimbabwe or the region specifically on violence against women in rural areas during COVID-19.

“This is because many service providers have been forced to switch to remote or phone-based ways of working, but there is a risk that poorer women who are less likely to have access to a phone and/or pay for phone credit or data are excluded from GBV reporting channels and support services,” reported the SAFE.

SAFE’s analysis of GBV cases showed that most of the reports of GBV are from women and girls residing in urban areas.

“As this appears to be the main GBV data analysis study in Zimbabwe during COVID-19, less is known about the situation of GBV against women in rural areas during lockdown to date. Similarly, another assessment of national hotlines and organisations that receive GBV reports through online presence and messaging platforms found that the majority of calls (62.5%) during lockdown were made by women in urban areas, while only 12.5% of the calls came from women in rural areas (UNFPA, 2020a).”