By Ivy Chibanda
I listened in to the program, Issues, Pane Nyaya on Star FM and my heart broke as a 9 year old and a 13year old narrated their ordeals as ‘ladies of the night’. These girls are victims of circumstances. The only people who could help just instructed them to follow and find out how they made their money, that is how they became victims.
It’s sad how some have not been sympathetic with these little girls, and most comments I have heard have been that ‘Kids of today are too forward’ or ‘vanoda zvinhu’ but I personally feel that it’s unfair, I blame those who introduced them to such ways of getting money.
Poverty has led most of these kids to become victims of older men who come and abuse these kids for a mere 50cents and sometimes a dollar. The most they can get per night is $2, after having spent the night with four men.
We have a lot of child headed families where a child as young as 8 years is forced to take care of her siblings, she has to drop out of school and find means to survival where some of them have ended up in the streets selling their bodies for a small amount of money.
A nine year old cannot reason for herself, she doesn’t know the implications of some actions, all she needs is some convincing that out of this you will get money. She hasn’t gone through puberty and because she has been isolated since the death of her parents, there’s not much she knows about STD’s thus she goes on to do what she thinks will sustain her and the family.
In as much as the blame has been put on the little girls, I personally blame the men who gladly come and stop for the small girls when there are older ‘ladies of the night’. Who, in their right mind, approaches a 9 year old and asks boldly, how much is short time? If these girls had no market, if no one stopped for them, I don’t think they would continue being in the streets, but because there is someone entertaining them, they will continue.
I just wish the authorities could do something to help these child headed families. So long the children have nothing to put in their tummies, they will do the worst to get a dollar. So long these children do not go to school, it’s hard for them to discern between the wrong and the right.
As a society, we all have a responsibility to help where we can. Provide for these children where possible, the NGO’s may help but only to some extent. Just a few words of advice can help them shape their lives. I wish the police would do something to stop these men from abusing these little girls. What will become of the generations to come?
You can follow Ivy Chibanda on her blog, Ms. Resolute
