Achievements
It is however important to note that 84.4% of the survivors attended to in the past 12 years are girls whilst 14.6% of the survivors are boys.
Besides attending to survivors of sexual abuse and gender the organization’s strength lies in the building of capacity of other stakeholders and communities in the management of child sexual abuse and gender-based violence.
The organisation has been focusing a lot on the training of nurses and doctors and their frontline staff so that they are able to manage cases of sexual abuse within their clinics and hospitals.
This however stopped in 2018 when the Ministry of Health and Child Care took over the training of their personnel. However, FST continues to work with the Ministry in attaching the nurses at its clinics for practical learning.
However, before the Ministry took over the training of nurses had trained 884 nurses and doctors from the Ministry of Health and Child Care on the clinic care and management of sexual abuse and child protection. In 2015 only the organisation trained 267 nurses and doctors from the Ministry of Health and Child Care on the clinical care and management of child sexual abuse and sexual violence.
The organisation has also trained police officers and legal officers in the Victim Friendly Unit of the Police on how to manage cases of sexual abuse. However, this has not been done of late due to funding constraints but is necessary.
It has also sensitised Guidance and Counselling teachers on how they can handle cases of child sexual abuse.
Community cadres such as Child Care Workers and traditional leaders have been sensitised in the organisation’s districts of operation.
The organisation has seen 37700 new cases of survivors being attended to at its clinic in the past 12 years with the breakdown shown in the table below
Year | Total children | Total adults | Total survivors |
2007 | 2038 | 0 | 2038 |
2008 | 1931 | 0 | 1931 |
2009 | 2288 | 0 | 2288 |
2010 | 3595 | 42 | 3637 |
2011 | 2992 | 778 | 3770 |
2012 | 2359 | 232 | 2591 |
2013 | 2063 | 1624 | 3687 |
2014 | 2134 | 307 | 2441 |
2015 | 2152 | 387 | 2539 |
2016 | 2326 | 372 | 2698 |
2017 | 5093 | 751 | 5844 |
2018 | 2770 | 1476 | 4246 |
Totals | 29517 | 8183 | 37700 |
In an effort to decentralize the provision of medical and psychosocial support to children who have sexually abused, the organisation support the Ministry of Health and Child Care to establish their own survivors’ friendly clinics in 9 sites as shown below
Name of clinic | Year established |
Bindura Provincial Hospital | 2013 |
Mpilo Central Hospital | 2010 |
Gwanda Provincial Hospital | 2012 |
Gokwe South District Hospital | 2010 |
Lupane St Luke’s Provincial Hospital | 2014 |
Chinhoyi Provincial Hospital | 2015 |
Masvingo Provincial Hospital | 2012 |
Gweru District Hospital | 2008 |
Conclusion
The organisation is now well established and known by a reasonable number of people of the services it offers. The challenges that the organisation is facing are surmountable and can be taken as opportunities to address the challenges children are facing. The organisation continues to work with other stakeholders to address the problem of child sexual abuse. With more efforts the problem of child sexual abuse will be greatly ameliorated but only if communities are made aware of the dangers of it. There is therefore need to strengthen awareness raising and capacity of communities to respond to the problem of sexual abuse.
In addition to helping the Ministry of Health and Child Care setting up their own clinics, the organisation has also helped PSI to set up its own survivor friendly spaces within its New Start Centres in Murambinda, Chipinge, Masvingo and Chiredzi in 2013.
It has also helped the setting up and training of the MSF run clinic in Mbare.
In trying to prevent the occurrence of sexual abuse and capacitate communities on how to respond to child sexual abuse cases, the organisation has reached out to 402 869 people in the past 10 years with information on child sexual abuse and gender-based violence. Awareness raising targets both children and adults
Outreach and Training component
ACTIVITY | TARGET | NUMBER REACHED |
Community Outreach Awareness | People reached through meetings, awareness talks, dramas and sensitization workshops. | 2007 – 26 215 people |
Totals | 402 869 people |
