Zambia: Boys Fight Sexual Violence Against Girls
By Lilian Museka
LUSAKA---Jane* , 15, is a house help in this particular house. The man of the house returns from work and finds out from her whether his wife and children. “No, am just alone,” she says. The man then sends her for sweets at the nearby ntemba (Shop). When she comes back, the man asks her to go into the bedroom. She declines and starts crying but the man forces his way, defiles and warns her not to tell anyone, failure to which he would send her back to the village with no living provisions.
Jane later reports the matter to the police and the man is arrested. He tries to bribe the police with no success and he is taken to court and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment with hard labour.
This is an artistic demonstration that was performed by a group of boys during a workshop organized for a group of school boys by the name The Boys Network which falls under Zambia National Women’s Lobby in Lusaka’s outskirts.
The play depicts the struggles a young girl goes through at the expense of working at home with an abusive man. She tries to uphold her dignity by turning down the man but she’s overpowered and mercilessly defiled, as the man takes advantage of absence of other family members.
This is the message the Boys’ Network drawn from both basic and high schools in Lusaka , is trying to put across as they take part in addressing sexual violence against girls.
The Boys’ Newtork is a department under Zambia National Women’s Lobby (ZNWL), which is a partner of Tisunge Ana Athu Akazi Coalition (TAAAC), translated to “Let us protect our girl child” a coalition working to address sexual violence against girls in Zambia with support from the UN Trust Fund through Equality Now.
Other coalition members include Zambia Media Women Association (ZAMWA), Young Women Christian Association (YWCA), Population Council, and Campaign on Female Education (CAMFED), Zambia Association for Research and Development (ZARD), Forum for African Women Educationists in Zambia (FAWEZA), Women and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA), Plan Parenthood Association of Zambia (PPAZ).
While opening the workshop, the Lusaka District Education Officer Mr. Andrew Ngwenya acknowledged that there was need for the boys to get involved in addressing sexual violence against the girls adding that the vice did not only affect women but men also and the community at large.
“These problems not only affect women but men also in the community and at the end of the day, it is the whole community that gets affected as one girl who drops out of school due to pregnancy from defilement creates a vacuum in the leadership or business fraternity,” said Mr. Ngwenya.
He said there was need for the boys to take advantage of such training opportunities to express problems they face in identifying and reporting sexual abuse cases, adding that they (boys’ network) should become a role model to other boys, who can speak about such issues in the community.
The Coordinator of Boys’ Network Mr. Nelson Banda said there was need to involve boys in the fight as they (boys) could get involved in illicit affairs with the girls at schools thereby increasing the vice.
“Boys cheat many girls at schools causing them to drop out either due to pregnancies or diseases. The girls are not safe anywhere and by involving the boys at an early stage, they get to learn ways to address this, he said adding that “any man seated next to you is a potential defiler.
He added that many young people suffered from “identity crisis stage” where they get a lot of confusing messages that may interfere with the future plans, adding that the Boys network had the opportunity to engage them at an early stage so that they became role models to their fellow students.
In his presentation, Mr. Kalombo Longwa, a teacher at Kamulanga High School regretted that there was increased sexual abuse against girls in families adding that most ceremonies impacted negatively on the girl child’s education.
He said the male was currently enjoying both economic and political dorminance thereby hindering the girl child to fully participate. He called on the need for the girl child to be given an opportunity to finish her education and further participate in the development of the society.
“Many women are not participating in development because they have been subjected to stay indoors and this calls for strict laws to protect the girl child. Current laws allow for punishment to defilers but forget the need to protect the girl child. Even if you kill the perpetrator, the effects caused on the girl cannot be reversed, the stigma always remains,” he said.
Giving an example of a man who defiled a 14 year old girl, interfering with her education and was only fined two chickens, which the courts ordered him to pay to the family of the survivor, he called on review of the laws to stiffen punishment and expel corrupt judges.
The teacher also asked parents to be vigilant and escort their children to and from schools to prevent attacks on their way.
‘Many children become vulnerable while going or coming from school because they are never escorted and this exposes them to the risk of being attacked by perpetrators,” Mr. Longwa said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Zulu, a teacher from Chazanga basic school called on the need for sensitization and organizing of workshops to train the youth to stay away from such and encourage them to abide by Christian values.
At the end of the training, the network developed topics for radio programmes to educate the public on the need to fight sexual violence against girls and messages for t-shirts that they would use in their campagn messages around the country, which read “Boys Lets Speak out Against Sexcual Violence on Girls”
They also developed a communiqué to be forwarded to the Minister of Education Ms. Dora Siliya on resolutions arrived at to help fight the vice.