Abuse of women and children in the spotlight

"My father came to my bedroom. He told me that now he no longer looks at me like a daughter, but like his girlfriend. I became very confused. I didn't want him to touch me, so he got angry and beat me with a hosepipe. Then he raped me. I lost consciousness." Two years ago, when Maria was thirteen years old, her father raped her, but only now is she able to talk openly about what happened. "I didn't know where to go. I was frightened to sleep in my own home," Maria told IRIN. As it was no longer safe for her to stay with her father, a social welfare officer transferred Maria to the Infantaria Provincial Colegio Infantil, a transit centre for abandoned and orphaned children in Beira, in the central province of Sofala. Maria said she felt "safe" at the centre; she received counselling and was able to assist with the younger children, many of whom had been orphaned by HIV/AIDS. Although little research has been done in the area of child abuse, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has said that existing data showed "a grim picture of the reality many children are facing" in Mozambique. The "Government Report on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child" cites a survey among minor sex workers in the capital, Maputo, in which 25 percent of the children interviewed were between 10 and 14 years old, and 22 percent said their first sexual encounter had been violent and against their will. They had been violated by a close relative, including their own father, or a neighbour. According to UNICEF, some of the underlying causes of abuse and sexual exploitation were poverty, gender discrimination and harmful traditional practices. Orphans were especially vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse - the number of children who had lost either their mother, father, or both parents to HIV/AIDS had already reached an estimated 1.2 million in 2001. The authorities, international organizations and NGOs have been examining the ways to deal with the problem of child abuse. "There has been a consensus that we needed to tackle violence against children and women in a different way," says Elena Muando, provincial director for Women and Children and Coordination of Social Action in the central province of Manica. "It was difficult to measure the extent of child abuse before, because it was a matter that got resolved by the family members. But now more and more such cases are denounced publicly and taken to the police." Muando highlighted the example of a nine-year-old orphan who was given by her aunt to a man who made the girl his "wife". "Someone informed us ... and we took the matter to the police. The man is now serving a long prison sentence." The Ministry of Women and Children and Coordination of Social Action, with the support of the UN Children's Fund, is developing a National Plan of Action to prevent such violence, abuse and sexual exploitation of children. The plan includes training police officials to provide sensitive assistance to children and women who have been abused, while 16 counselling centres aimed at providing support for the abused have also been set up across the country. Legal reform is underway to bring laws relating to children in line with the Convention on Rights of the Child (CRC), which has been ratified by Mozambique. But there is a long way to go. Most of Mozambique's 18 million people live in isolated rural homesteads - an estimated 60 percent of the population lives more than 20 kilometres from a health facility. If a child has been physically or sexually abused, access to health care, counselling centres and even information is often impossible in a country where only half of all school-aged children attend school. Maria now lives with the family of one of the volunteers at the centre, who are in the process of legally adopting her. "I feel like these are my parents now. I feel protected and I'm not frightened of anything," she said. Despite the support she has received, it has not been easy - none of her own friends are nearby and, except for her mother, no other relative has visited her. She told IRIN her mother does not understand her situation. "My mother asked whether I had got married yet." Maria is now 15 years old and does not want to put the past completely behind her. "I know many other children have the same experience as me - I want other children to denounce it, like I have done," she told IRIN. "I'm studying hard. My experience has made me want to be a lawyer, so I can fight such abuse in the future."