A GROUP of girls are playing catch. They could be ordinary children; but some are cradling babies, and they are suurounded by high walls topped with barbed wire. They are in a refuge, in the city of Meru near Mount Kenya, which houses survivors of sexual abuse.
Nearly a third of girls and 18% of boys in Kenya suffer some form of sexual violence before they are 18, according to a study published in 2010 by the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef). Though data barely exist in many poor countries and researchers rarely use comparable methodology, surveys in other African countries, including Tanzania and Swaziland, have found similarly high rates. The World Health Organisation (WHO) puts the global prevalence at 20% among girls and 5-10% for boys.
Assuming the data are correct, why is the problem worse in Africa? In the wake of the HIV/AIDS epidemic that swept across the continent in the 2000s, many...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/1NARnRt
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