Concern over STI infections among street kids

Each month as many as 150 children sleeping rough in the capital, Harare, are being treated for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), underlining their extreme vulnerability, according to a local NGO. Streets Ahead, an organisation trying to improve the welfare of Harare's 5,000 street children, said they discovered the STI outbreak when the children visited their offices for counselling and other support programmes. "We have more than 150 street children coming in on a monthly basis to get letters for them to receive free treatment for sexually transmitted diseases with a doctor we have identified in Harare. The age group of the children is worrying, as most are below the age of 16. These children are continuously being exposed to the HI virus," the Streets Ahead outreach programme officer, Jack Maravanyika, told IRIN. Doctor Masimba Mwazha, who treats the children infected with STIs, said many of them were being picked up and abused by adults. "Most of the children are enticed with offers of money and food, and they are easy prey for the perverted members of our communities who have no respect for the basic rights of these children," said Mwahza. A young orphan, who said he did not know how old he was, told IRIN: "Some of the boys and girls are being sexually abused by the older members of the street community, but a lot are also being abused by the 'normal' people." UN Children's Fund Project Officer for Child Protection, Ron Pouwels, described the reports as "shocking and disturbing". He added that what was worrying, other than the abuse itself, was that the children were also being exposed to HIV. As many as 34 percent of Zimbabwean adults are estimated to be HIV-positive, and more than 600,000 children have been orphaned by AIDS.