Number 16 April/May, 2000 |
What's in the News?the LRF Newsletter |
Children in crises offered helping hand
Judge Chibesakunda, officiating at the opening of the Child In Crisis Centre (CICC) in Lusaka last month, said it was saddening that even fathers who are expected to provide utmost care to their children are now sexually abusing these vulnerable souls “Fathers sexually abuse their daughters, uncles rape their nieces, teachers rape their pupils, and even pastors or church elders have unlawful carnal knowledge of very young girls,” she said. “All these are people one expects will, in their respective capacities, ensure that our children are given the best care that is conducive to their mental and physical development.” Judge Chibesakunda said the effects of child abuse to the victim included psychological trauma, physical effects such as sexually transmitted diseases, early pregnancy and HIV/AIDS. “Children become homeless and because they flee abusive situations, their school work suffers and many children lose all of their self esteem,” she said. The judge said children needed protection in line with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. She said her Commission was keen on ensuring that children’s rights were jealously promoted and protected and for this purpose, they had formed a special committee to look into that together with some selected Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs). Legal Resources Foundation (LRF) lawyer, Joice Macmillan, said the CICC was a Young Women Christian Association (YWCA) initiative. She said they were called upon as the people in the NGO world to support this initiative. Macmillan said the YWCA’s initiative received positive support from the police’s victim support unit, doctors, nurses and teachers, among other organisations. She said to this end, her organisation had formed a support group. Some of the group’s terms of reference were to be an advisory committee to the CICC programme, network on issues of child abuse, assist and advise on formulation of proposals for legal reform through Women in Need at national level and to create community awareness. “The Legal Resources Foundation, through me, chaired the Support Group and will continue to do so for the next six months when someone else is expected to take over from me,” Macmillan said. She explained that the CICC, which targets children aged from birth to 12 years, would temporarily accommodate abused children before they are taken to a permanent place. The CICC is just within the YWCA building near University Teaching Hospital. Its objectives are to provide psycho social counselling to the children and their families, increase community awareness of the prevalence of child abuse and what can be done, provide training on sexual abuse and related issues and network with other agencies like police, hospitals, social welfare and the Judiciary. Members of the public have since been invited to immediately report to the police’s victims’ support unit any incidence of child abuse. They have also been advised to take the child or children involved for examinations at the nearest medical centre and report such cases to CICC.
| Front page | LRF opens centre in Livingstone | Letters to the Editor | Need to protect ZAmbian women & girls | Corporal Punishment still alive | Seven years of service, the LRF story | Mobile courts suggested | Children in crises offered helping hand | Around the centres | Know your rights | Government sued over Police mistake | Police clump down on brothels | Public health & you |
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t is
frightening that child abusers nowdays are people expected to provide
the greatest protection to the children, Human Rights Commission chairperson
judge Lombe Chibesakunda has said.