MWENYA’S DIARY

                                                                   By Mwenya Mukuka

The devastating effects of HIV and AIDS in Zambia have seen many children going into the streets because families can not manage the extra burden of taking care of extended family members, this coupled with the disintegrating family values has also resulted in OVCs falling prey to the many immoral acts in society. These children have become thieves, prostitutes and end up a lost human resource of the country. With the coming up of orphanages which is a fairly new concept altogether some children have been given hope. Zambia in the recent past, probably the last two decades has seen a break in family linkages partly to the inheritance of western family values. Children have found home in orphanages. These homes assure children of better education, love, care, support and a bright future at the demise of their parents. These homes are supported by donor money. And just in a few years, so many have come up instantly becoming homes to many OVCs. Beauty (not real name) was born in 1986 in Ndola, the provincial capital of the copperbelt province. Her parents were lecturers at one of government owned higher learning institutions there. Being the only child she had all the privileges from her parents. Beauty had turned 14 when her parents died of HIV/AIDS complications. She was ushered into an orphanage because relations side could not take care of her. At 14 she had just come of age. She was introduced at an orphanage where she found other girls in a similar predicament and some in worse. At the orphanage she became so close to one male teacher. ‘He told me all sorts of good words a girl my age and state would want to hear. He said I was beautiful, brilliant and just incomparable. All I needed was to be focused and forge ahead if I was to be an accountant as my father was. All those good words reminded me of my parents and I felt so close to that man as I had in a long time never been told all those good words. The last to tell me how beautiful I was, was my late father months after my mother had died.’ A victim of unreported sexual abuse narrated to this writer amid sobs. Amid sobs she continued ‘I became so close to that teacher. I confided in him all my feelings. One time, he took me out along as he went to drink beer at night. I sneaked out of the orphanage. At the bar, he forced me several times to take a sip of some brand of a beer he was taking. I declined the offer and when I came back from the loo, I discovered that my drink had become bitter. I braved the bitterness and continued to take it and the next moment I was lying naked next to my teacher in one of the apartments at the orphanage just meters away from the girls’ dormitory. Blood covered my thighs and I knew what that man had done to me. I was no longer a virgin. Upon that realisation a sharp pain moved from between the legs. I hate my self. I told my self my virginity I was gone. I was now in a confused state and all I wanted was to leave that room. I stood up and opened the door slowly. My teacher was still was still asleep when I left. It was early in the morning and I could see the sun rising from the window that faced the east. Just coming out of that room I came face to face with the matron as though it was a rehearsed scenario. I knew I had lost it all. That matron was very strict…………………….’ ‘We cannot keep a dishonourable child like you. The board has therefore concluded that you leave this place because you will teach other girls your immoral acts. We urge you to repent of your sins………..’ Read the expulsion letter to Beauty in part. Beauty Left the orphanage ‘leaving her virginity’ at the orphanage. The abuser (Teacher), because he had been at the orphanage for some time and was good at project proposals was only suspended for two weeks. Beauty, the victim of un-reported sexual abuse in an orphanage now resides in one of the shanty townships of Kitwe with her newly made friends. All dreams of becoming an accountant gone. ‘I hate that man for taking away my virginity. A treasure I wanted to give my love. He crushed my life’ Beauty concluded. Her oval shaped face with eyes that can send any man to his knees looks so pale, literally with no life. She hates herself such that she had tempted twice to take her life each time she thought of that rapist teacher. This is just one of the unreported cases of sexual abuse in orphanages. An inquiry into the operations of the orphanages in the country is long over due. Just how many children have been sexually abused, impregnated and just face all sorts of abuse behind the doors of so many orphanages that have sprung up in Zambia? How many have been forced to abort to save the face of the orphanage or could the country account for children that have been ‘sold’ to foreigners from these homes on the pretext of adoption? Recently a senior government official in Chibombo expressed concern at the rampant abuse of children in orphanages in the district which has resulted in one orphanage recording 50 pregnancies this year. District Commissioner, Stephen Nyirongo threatened with closure of such orphanages in the area, which are involved in illicit activities and operating below the required standards. He said this when he addressed Chisamba township residents at Chisamba depot. Although he expressed sadness by the reports that 50 orphans at a named institution were impregnated this year alone is not enough. There is need to devise guidelines which would be distributed to all those looking after the OVCs. The impregnating of the 50 Orphaned girls at the particular orphanage puts their HIV status in question which is a sad state of affairs. It is so barbaric that people who are supposed to take care of the OVCs are taking advantage of the vulnerability by defiling them. I take it that these are teens and assume that they are virgins like Beauty was, so these unthinkable men have gone to an extent of taking the pride of these innocent children by sexually abusing them and just wonder how many have HIV now, Shame! The law should take its course because just a warning as issued by the Chibombo district commissioner that such an institution may face closure is not enough. 50 girls, all pregnant within nine months is sad and they will have children without fathers. What a sad development to the nation. At least we are not in the process of promoting a generation of fatherless children. This should bring concern to any right thinking individual because this evident rampant abuse of children in orphanages in Chibombo district is worrisome. The revelation should be followed and culprits be prosecuted to prevent further occurrence of the same in the future. My suspicions are that the same trend is happening in many parts of the country but it is just that it is not reported. How many OVCs are in pain at the hands of people purporting to be care givers? I reiterate my demand that the law takes its course in this matter with the urgency it deserves because this is a pure destruction of young people’s lives. Zambia has been hit with the devastating effects of HIV and AIDS, leaving children orphaned everyday, therefore where is this nation heading to if children are no longer safe in the hands of those claiming to have safe havens for children in the name of orphanages? The children who are now expecting might be going through different emotions and may be made bitter people in future resulting in a bitter generation. Care givers should know that they have a responsibility of moulding children into people of good moral standing and integrity in society and prevent a future of low self esteem. If this trend continues where orphaned children will be impregnated in orphanages then we will have a generation of fatherless children. The orphanage that has recorded 50 pregnancies should be closed with immediate effect and officials be brought to book to help with investigations with what really transpired for such a number of girls to be in a family way within a year.