Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) - A dramatic and concerning situation emerges from an inquiry carried out by a don Guanella Mobile Team, involving 315 young girls living on the streets in the district of Tshangu, a district which starts in the suburbs of Kinshasa and reaches the savannah. The questions were posed by teachers, two women and a man. The gravity of the phenomenon led the local Caritas office to launch a new programme, together with War Child and Comic Relief, to meet the many needs of so many “street children”, especially young girls abandoned and pushed into prostitution and violence. ”Almost 79% of the girls interviewed, we read in a report by Brother Mauro Cecchinato, director of Urban Activities and the Mobile Team, is aged between 12 and 18, and 70% were born in Kinshasa (most of them in the district of Tshangu), 62% has one living relative. The girls take to the streets for various reasons ”: abuse or problems within the family (65%), encouraged by other girls (45%), poverty (44%) accused of witchcraft (41%). Almost 70% never finished elementary school, 57% said they had no means of getting enough food to eat (motive for resorting to prostitution). All the girls interviewed. except one. said that prostitution was the only way of earning enough to live; 45% said they used some sort of contraceptives, while 80% said they did not oblige clients to use a preservative. Two thirds of the girls had never been tested for AIDS. About 32% meets an average 5 clients per night; 42% have become pregnant at least once, 15% had the baby and 20% live on the street with the child. A total 57% of those interviewed said they had suffered violence, mainly on the part of boys living in the streets, but 28 % of the sexual aggression was committed by soldiers or policemen. In 68% of cases of violence the victims received neither medical care, nor psychological nor legislative assistance. Only 9% of the cases had the courage and the opportunity to report the fact. Almost 86% had been living on the streets for more than one year and 65% of the 315 interviewed said they hoped to give up this kind of life as soon as possible. (AP) (27/7/2010 Agenzia Fides)
