Sandra, 15, looks like a child but she hasn't been one for a decade. When she was five, her uncle raped her at home in a gang-ridden city in Colombia. The physical pain healed but the mental effects remain
Sandra, 15, looks like a child but she hasn't been one for a decade. When she was five, her uncle raped her at home in a gang-ridden city in Colombia. The physical pain healed but the mental effects remain.
"I try to feel the same way as other children but it's difficult," she said.
A new Save the Children report weaves stories like Sandra's into a study on rape among children and what might be done to stop it.
Young girls, and some boys, growing up in conflict zones comprise up to 80 percent of rape victims, the report says. That's partially because stabilizing factors like schools and churches are often dissolved in times of upheaval. Families are torn apart and the children who remain often feel powerless. They are the victims, and sometimes at the hands of people who should be protecting them.
Then there are armed combatants in war zones who use rape as a deliberate warfare tactic, the report notes. But it also occurs where there are gender inequalities, economic depression and corrupt or dissolved judicial systems.
Rape is a taboo topic, and the study admits there are gaps in our knowledge of sexual violence. It makes people, from village elders to international peacekeepers, uncomfortable. It often goes unreported, and even when it is reported, the victims are sometimes held resp