Ubumbano VoiceRead More
By Mary Makhiringa
Civil Society Organizations (CSO) in Balaka, convened a meeting with various stakeholders across the district to map the way forward the rampant child prostitution the district is currently experiencing.
Bar owners, rest houses, sex workers association, political party representatives, Government departments, the Police and Judiciary were among the delegates during the meeting which took place at Zembani lodge.
Early this year, the district has experienced a lot of young girls ranging from 11 to 20 years being in strategic drinking joints as well as rest houses across the district, doing sex work.
It is against this background that the CSO engaged various stakeholders to curb this vice for the betterment of the district.
Speaking after the meeting, Chair for the gender thematic area at Balaka CSO Mercy Chakoma outlined several issues that the meeting has agreed to follow from now onwards.
Said Chakoma: “We did a deliberate move to invite all these delegates to this meeting so that everyone is responsible.
“We have all agreed that this is a problem at hand as everyone has accepted to have seen this happening across the district.”
“We have settled that the law should take its course, bar owners must refrain from keeping these children within their premises as well as selling beer to them, rest house owners who will house these children will have to face the law as well,” she said.
Chakoma further reveled that they have also settled that traditional leader as well as parent be engaged to further curb this problem.
“We have established that more of these children are from the areas of Nkaya, Phalula and Utale, and we have resolved that we engage traditional leaders as well as parents right there in the village to sensitize them.
“Most of these children leave their homes with a hope to their parents that they are going for household work as maids, but end up doing prostitution in town,” she revealed.
She further disclosed that as CSO are planning to establish a safe home for these children, so that both girls and boys found lingering in town without anything to do are taken there for rehabilitation.
Lucious Njobvu who represented the Chief Planning Officer for Balaka District Council hailed the CSO community for the initiate.
“Just to give very vivid evidence, last week we conducted a nutrition supervision, and it was established that a lot of children are HIV positive, and this is because of the many young girls indulging in sex work who in turn get pregnant to these children,” he said.
Meanwhile, Balaka district council has pledged to work hand in hand with the CSOs as always, the case to curb this.
