Life of child prostitute and mother …..how teenager survives with baby on Lusaka streets

By ANN ZULU

MANY people see prostitution - the act of trading one’s body for money and other material things - as normal. In fact in most parts of the world, prostitution has been legalized.

However when a child engages in it, it becomes a global discourse.

Charity, 17, is one of the many children in Zambia who is living her life as a prostitute.

Leaving Chongwe, her hometown, to search for greener pastures in Lusaka, all Charity was offered was the streets as a home and a baby to look after.

“I don’t know the whereabouts of the father of my child, I have not seen him in a while,” she told me.

Apparently, she had been abandoned by the man who impregnated her, the same man who deceived her that he loved her and had encouraged her into sleeping with other men to sustain them.

Consequently, after the baby was born 10 months ago, the only trade Charity had been taught for survival was prostitution.

She has religiously followed this path so she and her baby will live by the day. She sleeps with more than three men every day to make a daily wage of K50.

To many people, a K50 is nothing but to Charity it’s a pay-off for a rigorous day’s job. Unfortunately, sometimes the money is snatched by some of her wicked clients.

She added that on two occasions some men had pretended they wanted her to render a helping hand, but molested and raped her and all she could do was to cry and dry her own tears.

Charity is a mother while she herself still needs the guardian hands of a mother. One wonders how many girls in her predicament would have handled this situation.

She had the choice of a risky abortion and a perhaps a normal life all over again but she opted to be a parent at her tender age.

She must have felt tremendous love for her unborn child and in the midst of all the hardship and emotional turmoil, Charity chose to hold her baby for nine months in her womb and bring her forth into the world. Charity is indeed a true epitome of a strong African woman.

As we talked, she hurriedly averted her attention to respond to the cry of her hungry baby girl. She caressed her and briskly unbuttoned her blouse so she could reach her breast to feed her child.

As baby Mapalo drew food from her mother’s nipple, I wondered just how safe and healthy the breast milk was for her baby.

“I don’t know if I’ve contracted any disease because I don’t go to the hospital,” she said.

Clearly, Charity had been practising unprotected sex. And if anything was wrong with her, her 10 months old baby will share it too.

And what happened to Mapalo whenever her mother had to serve a client?

Charity said every time she had a ‘‘business’’ call, she left her daughter with a certain woman who sells cassava by the road side and paid her K5 when she returned. What a life! What a future for Mapalo!

Does Charity have friends?

“I don’t have any friends; it’s a dangerous world out there to befriend anybody. Most times I hang around pubs and most of the girls usually smoke and drink and get into fights with the men. I don’t want to be part of bad company especially for the safety of my daughter,” she said.

Charity seems to know what she’s up to and what she wants for her daughter and like every other girl that has dreams and fantasies, Charity has always wanted to be a teacher.

There are many such girls on the streets of Zambia, who are victims of their own circumstances.

Child prostitution is on the increase. Our society is becoming unfriendly to children each day. Unfortunately, prostitution to some of them is the last resort.

Many of these children have been denied love and parental care. Others just drift away from their homes to seek material wealth which they think have been deprived of.

In most cases they are victims of poverty and cruelty - men and women who are supposed to be protecting them take advantage of their vulnerability and abuse them sexually. In the process they destroy a bright future.  

Charity is a classic example of a new breed of Zambian citizens: young, abused, vulnerable kids who learn life the hard away on the street – some with a baby on their back.

One wonders what tomorrow holds for many of them.

Child marriage continues to ruin young lives in Zambia

By ANN ZULU

THE practice of child marriage, defined as a formal marriage or an informal union of anyone younger than the age of 18, is a reality that continues to affect many children globally and Zambia is no exception.

Zambia is among the top 20 countries with the highest prevalence rate of child marriage in the world.

Although the scourge affects both boys and girls, the latter are disproportionally victims.

According to the 2013-2014 Zambia Demographic and Health Survey (ZDHS) 17 percent of girls aged 15-19 are married compared to only 1 percent of boys of the same age group and 42 percent of women aged 20-49 report having married before the age of 18, compared to 4.2 percent of men.

What are the causes of child marriage in Zambia?

Poverty

Many families in Zambia especially in rural areas are still living in object poverty, therefore, poverty has proved to be one of the most significant factors driving child marriage in Zambia

Child labour Ambassador Samson Mutambo explains that parents and guardians see child marriage as a potential opportunity to benefit financially from the bride price for their daughter as well as an opportunity to ease their strain on household resources.

“Economic hardship forces parents and guardians to make difficult choices as they try to manage their living situation and encourages short-term strategic thinking rather than consideration of investment in longer term gains.

“For their part, girls see marriage as an opportunity to escape challenging economic and material circumstances and as a means of responding to their own basic needs,” he said.

Lack of recreation

In Zambia, the rates of child marriage are higher in rural areas than urban, as are teenage fertility rates.

Latest data available from the 2007 DHS indicate that girls in some rural areas are more than twice as likely to marry as their counterparts living in large towns and cities.

The survey also reveals that girls in rural areas also tend to marry, on average, about two years earlier than girls of the same age living in urban areas.

Chikobo ward Councillor Reagan Mubtsa in Chitambo Constituency of Central Province disclosed that children in his ward have limited access to a range of programmes, information services and few opportunities for leisure and recreation.

“Like other children in rural areas, children in my ward do not have access to leisure and recreation facilities, they don’t have things to do and so they resort to engaging in sexual activities which eventually lands them in early marriages,” Mr Mubatsa said.

Not going to School

The dynamics between child marriage and education are complex and flow in multiple directions; some girls marry because they cannot go to school.

For many families, the financial cost of sending children to secondary school is prohibitive. With annual secondary school tuition reported to be approximately K2, 700 and annual and annual family incomes in rural areas reported at about K900.

Secondary schooling is financially prohibitive for many families, even before taking into account the indirect costs for items like uniforms, materials and transport. With average rural household size 5.2 persons, the high ratio school fee to income makes it impossible for families to consider sending more than one or, at the most, two children to school at any one time.

“Sometimes children want to go to school and parents are ready to take them to school, but they don’t have funds or school fees, hence, children stay at home without anything to do. They have no recreation centres, hence if they can’t go to school, recreation becomes sexual activities,” A father of six and resident of Chitambo, Josias Chola said.

Teenage pregnancies

Marriage is a common response to teenage pregnancy in many Zambian communities. It is widely accepted that if a girl becomes pregnant, then she should marry the father of the child.

A 16-year-old Mercy Banda, who was married off when she was 14 years but now divorced, said her parents forced her into marriage when they found out that she was pregnant.

“When I was 14, I was impregnated by a boy who was two years older than me and my parents said they could not support my child, so I had no option but to marry him. But we are not together anymore,” she said.

Vulnerability of orphan’s stepchildren

Orphans and step children are more vulnerable to child marriage, especially in areas where HIV prevalence rates are high or there are greater levels of divorce and remarriage.

At community level, extended families are involved in the care of orphans and in meeting their basic needs through early and middle childhood income. Usually when orphans reach puberty, guardians tend to think that their duty of care has been met and that it was acceptable to seek out marriage for non-biological children in the household.

“The main issue is orphan children- their inability to feed themselves or be fed by their guardians and the quality of care by guardians. Orphans come mainly from households with HIV where the parents have died or they have been forced out of a home due to re-marriage,” says Nkweto Mubanga, a nurse.

Similarly, stepchildren are often pressured by stepparents to become independent as a means of reducing the demands on the households’ economy or of freeing up the limited resources available to support children from the current marriage.

Stepchildren are also cited as being mistreated and such treatment renders marriage a more attractive option to children because they seek to run away from what they deem an intolerable living situation.

“She must have been mistreated at home by her cruel step mother, who may have not been giving her food to eat or might have been beating her,” Ms Mubanga added.

Risks associated with child marriage

Adolescent girls have continued to die from complications arising from early child bearing and they continue to drop out of the school system before completing their education, therefore, reducing their chances of escaping poverty. Girls also experience emotional difficulties when they move out of their family home, such as challenges that couples encounter in managing their relationship with one another and caring for small children when they themselves are young and lack experience.

Interventions

Child marriage is an issue that has gained attention in Zambia. Nearly every week, there are media reports and press releases on the topic, and regular statements are made by chiefs, government officials, non-governmental organisations, academics and front-line workers in rural and urban areas.

The Zambian government, working in partnership with stakeholders, had embarked on the programme to end child marriage, officially launched in 2013.

The Ministry of Gender was given the responsibility of coordinating the national efforts against child marriage, while addressing the vulnerabilities as well as the consequences associated with marrying off children.

“In carrying out the intervention, my ministry is responsible for strengthening coordination at all levels, raising awareness on child marriage, facilitating the review of policy and legal frameworks related to children and marriage, building capacities of stakeholders at all levels, mobilising funds and facilitating service delivery related to addressing the vulnerabilities and consequences of child marriage,” says Gender Minister Victoria Kalima.

In order to strengthen the national response to ending child marriage, the Ministry of Gender, working with stakeholders, last year developed a National Strategy on ending child marriage, a document which outlines the strategic focus for the period 2016-2021.

Ms Kalima explained that the National Strategy was aimed at accelerating National efforts to end child marriage by 2030 by providing an operational framework that reflects the current national and global trends and efforts.

“I am confident that the National Strategy on ending child marriage will promote and contribute to the protection of the rights of all children, both those affected by child marriage as well as those at risk.

“It will support their development and welfare as espoused in the Revised National Child Policy, the Revised Sixth National Development Plan, Zambia’s Vision 2030, the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of Children, the African Union Charter and other relevant national international policy and legal document,” Ms Kalima said.

With all these interventions, everyone has a responsibility to ensure that all children grow up in a safe environment, have access to health care and develop themselves to their full potential.

The fight against child marriage will remain only wishful thinking if proactive measures put in place are not implemented by all to ensure that this becomes a reality.

Child marriage leads to multiple violations of children’s rights, especially for the girl child and has globally been identified as one of the detriments to development, therefore, there is an urgent need for concerted efforts of various players to ensure children fully develop before they enter into marriage.

Hate speech in politics discouraging women participation

By ANN ZULU

CONTINUED hate speech among political parties is discouraging 

women from participating in politics, Zambia National Women’s Lobby chairperson Beauty Katebe has said.

Ms. Katebe charged that men had continued to dominate the political arena.

She said the women movement was concerned that only few women had taken the mantle to participate in politics.

She attributed hate speech among politicians as one of the contributing factors discouraging women from engaging in politics.

“It’s so sad that men are still dominating politics in Zambia and we feel that politics of hate speech has contributed to this because women love to be respected, and they do not want to get involved in something that will make them lose their respect and worthiness,” Ms Katebe said.

She reiterated that the political field in the country had been marred with hate speech, urging political parties to stop the vice.

She appealed to political parties to co-exist and live in harmony.

Ms. Katebe noted that if hate speech was stopped, more women would be interested in joining politics.

 “There is need for women to take part in politics and the whole electoral system. So we urge political parties to desist from hate speech and instead, co-exist.

“Women are scared of the being disrespected and violence that is likely to erupt every time cadres from different political parties meet because it affects them more than anyone else and they cannot even defend themselves from the brutality,” she said.

And Ms. Katebe called on women in politics not to feel intimidated, but showcase their worth, saying no one would give them leadership on a silver platter.

“What is depriving women leadership in this country is the syndrome that only men can lead. Who said to be a president in this county you must be a man?” she asked.