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.