Girl Child Sexual Abuse in Lusaka Urban
Authors: Sakala Sandra Chilensi 
Published: September 2021

The study on girl child sexual abuse and whose findings are presented in this article

was conducted in 2010 as an academic requirement for the purpose of completing a

Master’s degree in Gender Studies at the University of Zambia.

This article outlines issues of sexual abuse and the various reasons why under-age

girls are more vulnerable to sexual abuse, cultural beliefs with regard to sexual abuse,

gender and power relations and sexual abuse, and existing community programmes and

knowledge levels, and institutional mechanisms of the sexual abuse case reporting in

Lusaka urban. The article has drawn conclusions and recommendations for enhancing

the protection of the children against child sexual abuse. By conducting a study that

comprehensively assesses the types of programmes and perceived implementation

gaps from Lusaka, this report poses specific policy and structural recommendations

on how best to address the existing problem of increased vulnerability of under-age

girls to sexual abuse.

Child sexual abuse is a form of abuse in which a child is abused for the sexual

gratification of an adult or older adolescent (CHIN, 2005: 53). Child sexual abuse is

the actual or the likely sexual exploitation of a child and includes rape, incest and all

forms of sexual activity (VSO, 2008: 2). In Zambia, anyone under the age of sixteen

is classified as a child.

Researchers cite various reasons why child sexual abuse is so common: Gender

power relations (patriarchy views which place women and children in lower positions),

poverty, a legacy of violent homes, power relations between children and adults, and

cultural beliefs.

The research was an exploratory study undertaken in Lusaka urban and endeavored

to explore why the problem of sexual abuse was persistent and why under-age children

were vulnerable to it. Using purposive and simple random sampling, a sample size of

seventy was arrived at and both qualitative and quantitative approaches of research

were employed. The data was then analysed manually and by Statistical Package for

Social Science (SPSS).

The institutions visited were: Ministry of Community Development and Social

Welfare, Women and Law in Southern Africa Trust, The Child Protection Unit of

the Zambia Police Service, Young Women Christian Association, Isubilo Orphanage

and Drop-in Centre and Jesus Cares Ministries Orphanage. Additionally, community

members from Chawama, Mtendere and Kabwata compounds were interviewed for

more insight into the study.

The study results showed that under-age girl-children were more vulnerable to sexual

abuse because they were easy to coerce, threaten, lure and could be more trusting

than much older girls. Further, the study revealed that gender-power relations, power

relations between children and adults, cultural beliefs and community programmes on

sexual abuse played a role in girl child sexual abuse.

The overall study recommendations were coined from the outcomes and

conclusions made in the study as follows: children needed more focused education

to increase their knowledge about child sexual abuse; intensify funding injections

into already functional community and school programmes, for example the School

Liaison Programme under the Zambia Police Service; putting in place a holistic

approach to sensitise community members centring on encroaching cultural norms

and practices that perpetrate child sexual abuse; there was need to intensify and widen

the coverage of programmes on child sexual abuse clearly stipulating and defining

types of sexual abuse; the law and punishment for perpetrators; perceived gaps in the

awareness programmes and institutional mechanism for sexual abuse case reporting

was bureaucratically long, long court procedures and negative cultural doctrines also

played a role and as such needed attention.