BY SIKHANYISIWE LUNGA
Sharon Nyadzonga* has traumatic tales to tell about her stint living on the streets of Gweru where she was sexually abused repeatedly and eventually impregnated by an unknwon man, who posed as a policeman.
Nyadzonga (19), who joined the growing army of children living on the streets of the Midlands capital after her step mother chased her away from their Ascot home, was violated at a spot where she felt the safest.
After enduring unending sexual abuse by boys she was living with in Gweru’s central business district, she moved to a spot close to a near-permanent police roadblock on the outskirts of the city centre.
One night, a man she had seen on several occasions close to the police check point who always posed as a policeman, invaded her sanctuary and raped her once without protection.
“After forcefully removing my clothes, he proceeded to rape me without using protection,” said a teary Nyadzonga, who is now nursing a three month-old baby conceived from the horrific incident.
“He warned that if I dared to scream or tell anyone about it he would arrest me.”
Following the attack, the terrified young woman moved back to the CBD where life changed rapidly for her as she discovered after three months that she was pregnant.
Nyadzonga said one day she collapsed while in the CBD and on regaining consciousness she was on a hospital bed.
Her stay in hospital, however, was a blessing in disguise as nurses linked her with a good Samaritan, Stella Khumalo, the founding executive director of the Queen of Peace Rehabilitation and Crisis Centre in Gweru.
“My life started changing and I started opening up to her about my challenges living on the streets,” Nyadzonga said. “She eventually told me that I was pregnant and I told her that I was raped by a police officer.
“She helped me to report the case to the police, but nothing much has happened to bring the culprit to book.”
Khumalo explained that the case did not go far because the profile of the alleged rapist did not match any of the police officers that were usually stationed at the roadblock.
An investigation by CITE that involved interviews with children living on the streets, care workers, police and organisations looking after vulnerable children in Gweru showed that homeless girls were at the mercy of sex predators that are always on the prowl.
Most of the abusers, it was revealed, were fellow children living on the streets and ordinary men who prey on the vulnerable girls.
Sex predators prowl on street children
A study by Constance Gunhidzirai and Leila Patel published in the Social Work and Society International Online Journal titled Poly-Victimsation and Health Risk Behaviours Among Street Children in Zimbabwe, concluded that most children living on the streets were “experiencing physical, sexual and emotional abuse.”
Statistics on children living on Gweru’s streets are difficult to establish, but official data from 2015 put the number at 10 000 countrywide, with 2 000 living on the streets of the capital Harare alone.
A 2022 Zimbabwe Statistics Agency report showed a 15 percent increase in the number of children living on the streets due to the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, with recent government data showing a sharp rise in the numbers since 2015.
A 2002 study by researchers from the SAT Programme, Simukai Street Youth Project and Thuthuka Stree Children’s Project titled AIDS and Street Children in Zimbabwe, showed that the children living on the streets “experience casual sex, rape, prostitution and sex for goods and other services.”
Some of the challenges faced by girls living on the streets that were identified in the study included early exposure to sexual activity, susceptibility to sexually transmitted infections and lack of adequate information on sexual and reproductive health.
The girls are always in danger of sexual exploitation, bullying, unwanted pregnancies, poor access to sanitary items and complications that result from botched abortions.
It was the unbearable abuse from boys living on the streets that saw Nyadzonga finding herself in the proverbial jumping from the frying pan into the fire scenario with the rape ordeal.
Khumalo said it was unfortunate that the girl could not positively identify the person, who raped her and that meant that the case could not be pursued any further.
“In the case of the female we took in who was pregnant, we tried to get to talk about her ordeal and she narrated it to us,” she told CITE. “However, when we began following up on the story in an attempt to report it to the police so that the responsible person would be held accountable, we noticed that person might have been someone, who pretended to be a police officer based on the description that was given of what the person was wearing on the day in question.”
She said after Nyadzonga gave birth they reunited her with her relatives. Researchers say the majority of the victims of sexual abuse living on the streets, some as young as 12, are afraid or too ashamed to report the abuse, fearing the backlash from their abusers or rejection.
30 girls raped on Gweru’s streets
Khumalo’s organisation has handled 30 cases of girls that were raped and impregnated on the streets of Gweru since 2013. While all the girls were assisted to deliver safely, 17 ran away from the centre in an indication of the challenges care workers face in rehabilitating and protecting children living on the streets.
Inspector Emmanuel Mahoko, the Midlands provincial police spokesperson, said the law enforcement agency had not recorded any cases of girls living on the streets that were sexually abused in a long time.
“For a long time now, we have not received reports related to sexual crimes happening in Gweru central business district,” Mahoko said.
“It follows also that; we have no cases of that nature believed to be involving street people.
“If they are encountering such cases, probably, they are not reporting.
“If there are victims, we encourage them to report their cases so that they are investigated and if there is evidence, have perpetrators prosecuted.”
Florence Nyathi Mlauzi from the Midlands Chidren’s Hope Centre, which gives children living on the streets of Gweru regular meals, said they try to assist them to stay out of harm’s way.
“We also help these children through outreach programmes, which enable them to stay focused and avoid staying on the streets where they end up abusing drugs,” Mlauzi said. “We work together with the social development department to reunite these children with their families.”
Polite Maradzika, a social development officer in the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Development, said so far this year they have handled four cases of children that were sexually abused on the streets.
Maradzika said in some cases they get reports that some law enforcement agents were among the perpetrators.
“At times, these children who live on the streets sexually abuse each other,” he said.
“However, despite cases of them sexually abusing each other, they also experience various forms of abuse like physical and verbal abuse which they inflict upon themselves in trying to survive on these streets.
“So far for this year we have received four such cases and to assist them we have taken them for counselling and medical check-up sessions before re-uniting them with their families or taking them to children’s homes where they will be properly taken care of.
“For child-protection related cases, we investigate such cases and try to re-unite these children with their families.”
Access to maternal health services
Morlene Choto, the child protection officer for Gweru district, said in cases where children living on the streets give birth, they assist them to access requisite health services.
Choto acknowledged that there was an increase in the number of girls living on the streets that were falling pregnant due to sexual abuse, largely because of the environment they live in.
“With the rise in the number of street children who end up giving birth on the streets, these services have been very helpful in ensuring that the newly-borns are delivered in a safe environment,” she said.
“We also partake in ensuring that after giving birth, the mothers are incorporated into projects which will enable them to generate income and not go back to live on the streets.”
Choto said the department also assists the children by placing them in stable homes and tracing their relatives. Before they are reunited with their relatives, the family situation is assessed before they are returned.
The government also assists the street children to acquire national identification documents and they receive free treatment at government hospitals.
For Nyadzonga, the rape ordeal and unwanted pregnancy as tragic as it was, it opened an avenue for her to rebuild her life and she has ambitions to be a businesswoman.
“I am happy to share that with the help of Queen of Peace, I gave birth to a healthy baby boy and now I am looking to start a business of my own so that I can move away from the organisation and stand on my feet,” she said.
The situation remains dire, with experts calling for urgent measures to address the root cause of homelessness and protect vulnerable populations from the scourge of sexual abuse.
*Name changed to protect the victim.
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