SHOCKING SEXUAL ASSAULT STATISTICS

H-Metro Reporter

THE Adult Rape Clinic (ARC) is recording an average of 200 sexual assault cases every month, amid fears that several other cases go unreported.

ARC director, Maceline Mukwamba, said:

“Men don’t want to come out because they think that it’s a failure to report yet they equally need such support.

“As a psychologist, I can safely say that in most cases, men end up committing suicide, hence the call.

“Of the total number of sexual assault cases being reported at the ARC, only one percent are male, hence the growing fears that men are suffering in silence.

“We are very worried with the statistics, men are failing to come forward, this normally results in them being affected by STIs and other sexual diseases such as HIV.”

Harare Provincial Development Officer in the Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprise, Ernest Chimboza, said:

“As the Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprise, we are concerned with these unreported cases of indecent assault because it affects every family member, especially women and children,” he said.

“Men should also be there to support women in communities, especially in case of such eventualities.

“We are partnering with non-governmental organisations to curb that habit because men themselves are not able to come out because of stigma.”

With a record 70 percent of the victims being children and adolescents, and 30percent being adults and elderly women, ARC, in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Child Care, has established clinical and counselling centres in most provincial hospitals across the country.