Findings by CNN reveal that girls as young as 10 years old in Malawi are being sent to sex camps to be initiated.
The girls are taken to the camps where they are taught to have sex and expected to lose their virginity.
The ‘campers’ are usually tricked by their families into attending these camps and they are told that they must either have sex or get a skin disease.
The horrifying practice is not new – it is a time-honoured ritual passed through generations and the girls are sent by their families to make sure they are accepted into their communities as adults.
When she was aged 10 Grace was sent to an initiation camp which took place not far from her home in Golden Village, where Grace lives with her grandmother.
During her week-long stay she said she was taught her about respecting her elders and doing household chores, but also how to have sex by the women that led the camp who are known as anamkungwi, or ‘key leaders’.
She told a group of journalists visiting Malawi with the United Nations Foundation that the women demonstrated sexual positions and encouraged girls to do ‘sexual cleansing,’ also called kusasa fumbi, which meant they should get rid of their inexperience with sex through practice.
Not all initiation ceremonies in Malawi encourage girls to have sex, as programs and local cultures vary throughoutthe diverse country, which is home to several ethnic groups and languages.
Pockets exist throughout the country, especially in the south, that teach sexually explicit content to their youth. Initiations that encourage premarital sex are practiced among various ethnic groups, including the Yao and Lomwe, which are based in the south, according to Malawi Human Rights Commission, which is charged with investigating rights violations.
The commission also reported that girls as young as six have been sent to initiation camps, where they're taught how to have sex. It condemned the sexual curriculum for young girls, saying it impinges "on a number of rights of the girl child such as the right to education, the right to health, and the right to personal liberty and dignity."
Human rights groups and researchers have also found instances when a man, nicknamed a hyena or fisi, has sexual intercourse with newly initiated girls as part of the rite of passage. Men enter the girls' room, one woman told a focus group which was held for teens and adults by the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers to examine perspectives on initiation rites.
"They say they want to see whether the girls have really grown up by having sex with them," she was quoted as saying,
In Malawi, over 10% of the population between the ages of 15 and 49 have HIV/AIDS, according to national data.
"There's no benefit to the sex education," said Mkandawire. "This is harmful to the girls. This is one of the factors fueling child marriage in Malawi. Why teach girls this when they're nine or 10 years old?"
Malawi ranks 10th for the highest rate of child marriages in the world, with half of its children married before the age of 18,according to the World Health Organization. The country also suffers one of the world's highest maternal mortality rates, according to UNICEF. And 35% of all pregnancies in Malawi come from teenage mothers.
The younger the girls, the more they are at risk for pregnancy-related problems such as fistulas -- a condition that results in leaking urine and feces -- bleeding and other complications.
*Everywhere i turn its sex,sex,sex..bad sex and it leaves a sour taste in my mouth!
BLOG ANALYSER: there government needs to use a radical measure to curtail this practice.
ReplyDeleteHum! wonders shall never end, Na wa o! everyday awaits new discoveries.
DeleteBLOG ANALYSER: *The government
DeleteDis is one of d reasons why I wanted Natasha a.k.a mam Africa to win last years big brother show, she kept on talking about how their country needs to work on their women and children, most of them are very poor and uneducated....
DeleteThis is the kind of news senator yerima will like. Am sure he will be running his beards and smiling stupidly reading this.
DeleteMtchewww!
*Rubbing/stroking
DeleteGod have mercy poor girls they should stop this already
ReplyDeleteUwa Nmebi...
ReplyDeleteEZIOKWU NWANNE ! that's why i have sacrificed my pleasure for the sake of my children.I don't want them to suffer at allllll. Sex will happen at the ripe time. Then it will be by their choices.We as parents are the gods the can see. If we don't protect our children WHO THEN WILL? !!!
DeleteBrilliant comment
DeleteTell me how God will not punish some people. Parents, Guidance nd other adults in d society re meant to lead these little ones on the right track. Sex has become d order of d day. Need I say God came about dis thing called sex not just to procreate but for initimacy between spouses, why then do we mock God? Why planet Earth?
ReplyDeleteMy dear, you said my mind....
DeleteGod is not in this, it is we who have to fix these sick practices. Waiting on God to dole out punishment or fix the world is not going to help any of us. We all have to do our part in making the world a wonderful place to exist.
DeleteLike seriously wat is wronq wif ppl? Gosh!
ReplyDeleteLmao Anty Stellastika,sex,sex,sex everywhere,may God save us oh,i wonder what goes on in the mind of a fukerholic father, who just gave birth to a girl?can't explain lol but its enough karma for any man to zip up.
ReplyDeleteHoly Moses!!! Pissed# @i_ChoPtas_Not
ReplyDeleteGod have mercy!
ReplyDeleteOh dear Lord have mercy!
ReplyDeleteCeeCee
Jege jagua.....
ReplyDeleteI wonder Stella. This world is turning upside down. Even children are thought how to have sec and they call that their culture. That is repugnant to natural justice. Pls that custom should be expunged from this surface of earth for crying out loud
ReplyDeleteUr English shall. Take it easy abeg
DeleteYou will choputa when the time comes. Careless talk
ReplyDeleteI wept for naija''''????€€€€!
ReplyDeleteWhere u see naija here na? Shuo
DeletePls read before u comment
DeleteHian !
Lord protect my kids N all other children from the hands of this creatures
ReplyDeleteAMEN
Sigh
ReplyDeleteWhen ever I read comment like this I always wonder mayb rapture don pass us ooh. We don see all the signs finish ooh. Sir alpachino sent via Nokia3310
ReplyDeleteWhen ever I read comment like this I always wonder mayb rapture don pass us ooh. We don see all the signs finish ooh. Sir alpachino sent via Nokia3310
ReplyDeleteI just rmbrd d way Natasha n Fatima (both from Malawi) were teaching Feza on BBA diff bedmatic skills on her bachelorette night. Its possible they too went thru d camp. Na only God go help us.
ReplyDeleteChineke mere anyi ebere bikokwa
ReplyDeleteGirls and women don suffer for Africa.
ReplyDeleteWhy do we always snatch their childhood from these children???
ReplyDeleteThis sex thing is really over rated,why can we allow kids to be kids and respects our selves as Adults... Nawa oo
ReplyDelete