Sexual abuse: a thorn in the realization of some teenagers’ dreams
Mukamusoni (not real name) a teen mother living in Kigabiro sector of Rwamagana district still struggles to recount her ordeal several years after she was sexually abused and impregnated, an incident that shuttered her dreams.
“A lot of my life dreams were shuttered due to the fact that I gave birth while still young. I dropped out of school yet my plan was to study up to the university level.”
Mukamusoni is among hundreds of teenagers who became mothers prematurely and, in some cases, left to fend for themselves following exclusion by family members who fell they have been disgraced by their yet loved one.
Following the pregnancy, she became an outcast among family members and friends who no longer “considered me any more as a person of value”. She went on to say that “I heard about gender-based violence before while at school but I had no deep understanding of the issue until I was a victim myself.”
According to the Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey 2019-20 from the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda and the Ministry of Health, 45 percent of women aged 15 to 49 have experienced physical or sexual violence: 23 percent have experienced only physical violence, 9 percent have experienced only sexual violence, and 14 percent have experienced both physical and sexual violence.
According to the same report the number of teen pregnancies increased from 17,337 in 2017 to 19,832 in 2020.
Most of these teen mothers and their children can hardly live a happy life due to the fact that they are not only left to fend to themselves by parents or family relatives but also the perpetrators.
“I am getting no support from the child’s father. I did not get the child registered with the civil registration office.” Says Mukamusoni as she tries to calm her crying one year old baby.
Mukamusoni called for increased efforts to raise adolescent awareness of the reproductive health and provision of timely justice to the victims of rape.
If one goes by the findings of the Rwanda Demographic Health Survey 2019/2020 some cases of sexual abuses may go unnoticed as “40% of women and 38% of men who have experienced physical or sexual violence have never sought help to stop the violence or told someone about it”. The report also indicates that in all background characteristics, experiencing sexual violence is lower among men compared to women.
Though concerned institutions do not deny the existence of sexual violence, they also indicate that breaking the silence on sexual violence and increased awareness about its forms are contributing to more cases being reported and thus helping in efforts to curb it. The government and partners three years ago launched a campaign “My voice-my rights against sexual abuse/Ijwi Ryanjye-Ndinda Ihohoterwa rikorerwa ku gitsina’
The article was produced by the Bridge Magazine as part of activities to implement the Kigali Declaration on the Elimination of Gender Violence in and through Media in Africa and the Rwanda Media Anti-Sexual Harassment Policy.