By Tendai Guvamombe
Cases of teen pregnancies are on a rife, with communities continuously seeing the unforeseen with little progress made to address the scourge of child abuse and teen pregnancies.
These were the major stories that took centre stage at a media community dialogue held in Chishawasha last week.
Journalists had the opportunity to extract real stories of child abuse and teen pregnancies from the victims. This assisted in amplifying the voices of the victims in a manner that triggers action from law makers and enforcers.
Despite awareness campaigns held at different levels by different organizations, cases of child abuse are still on the rise and the majority of these have always pointed towards parents and guardians as the perpetrators.
“I was sexually abused by my own father at the age of 15, today I have this child with me resulting from sexual abuse by my own Father,” a 17 year old girl said.
Despite the father being jailed, the society got a surprise of the day after seeing the perpetrator parading in the streets as a free man in the aftermath of a Presidential Amnesty to some prisoners.
Currently, the society is living in fear as the perpetrator continues to issue derogatory statements against the victim.
The issue took centre stage during the community media dialogue to asses the loopholes presented in some of the pieces of legislation in addressing cases of rape and child abuse.
The local media is now being viewed as the main platform to amplify the voices of young mothers and girls suffering from all forms of abuse in the society.
More incidences continue to happen in some sections of the society without unnoticed. This then requires more combined efforts to expose and address the scourge of abuse on women and you girls.
