THE life of five-year-old Christine (real name withheld) is one that even an adult would consider a horror. But for her, it is a nightmare she lived with at the hands of an abusive aunt after the death of her parents.

Christine's father died before she was born and her mother died of HIV/AIDS when she was three-years-old, Christine thus lived with her aunt for three months that seemed like a lifetime.

However Christine was lucky; her life was saved by another aunt who spoke out about her niece’s abuse, unlike many other children whose abuse at the hands of relatives goes unnoticed.

After living with her aunt for a while, she was taken away by an uncle, her father’s brother and his wife.

Narrating Christine’s ordeal, Cathy, an aunt who stepped forward to report the matter to the police says she herself was willing to keep her niece after her parents’ death but the uncle insisted that he keeps her.

“He told me I had no right to keep her because my husband who was his brother had died so I had no relationship with the family, I had no choice but to let her go,” narrates Cathy.
Cathy further narrates that it was during this period that the wife of Christine’s uncle started abusing her.

“Christine’s aunt started physically abusing Christine, thinking that she was HIV positive because of her mother’s cause of death. She was neglected and severely beaten. I later learnt that she was not even allowed to sleep in the house instead she slept in a sack house (shelter made of sacks) all by herself despite being so young,” she says.

“What hurt me the most is that they lied about how she was doing. The aunt would come to my house and I would ask how Christine was, she would say Christine was doing fine and that I would be happy to see how fat she had become and that she would soon be enrolled into school but all those were lies.”

According to Cathy, Christine was sometimes so severely beaten that at times she could not even walk.

“I visited my niece without seeing her as I was told that she had gone to play when in actual fact she was in the sack house unable to move or speak,” Cathy sadly adds.

“At some point I found her with a cut on her head but I was told that she fought with a friend and that she was on medication for the bruises when she was not but the truth was that she was hit with a plank.”

Apart from the physical abuse, Christine went on for days without food.
“The young girl was starved and left for dead but God refused to let her die like that, so he protected her and gave her the strength to stay alive, so she could testify and put the heartless aunt to shame.”
Cathy said the abuse went on to an extent where her aunt would feed the Christine her own waste.

“That woman is cruel and now I believe that a human being can be deadly. It is so hard to believe that a woman would do such a thing as feed a child her own waste after she had messed up herself all because she was too weak to go to the toilet on her own,” Cathy adds.
Christine’s rescue from the ordeal she went through came after Cathy’s daughter went to visit and found her in a bad state.

“My daughter went to visit Christine and found her sleeping in the sack house with a swollen and broken back and in much pain,” she says.

“She came home in tears with Christine on her back without the knowledge of her aunt and upon seeing how bruised and malnourished she was, I could not hold back my tears and that is when I decided to go to Westwood Police in Lusaka West.”

The matter was reported and Westwood police arresting officer sub inspector Nunsa Mufolofolo handled Christine’s case.

Mufolofolo says after interrogations, the woman admitted having mistreated the child.
“Christine’s case is touching because I never thought that someone would mistreat a child in such a manner. Her health was so bad that she could not walk or stand and that was when I decided that the woman be brought to book for what she did to the child. The poor child had bruises, with a broken backbone. We took her to the clinic but we were transferred to UTH,” Mufolofolo says.

She however expressed happiness that the woman behind the abuse had been punished.
“I am very happy that Christine’s aunt was taken to court and sentenced to 7 years imprisonment for abusing the girl. I took the child to Social Welfare and a home was found for her, now she is happy and safe,” she adds.

“I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to members of public to speak out about child abuse because we are all responsible for saving these children.”
During a visit at an orphanage where she is currently staying, Christine was able to recount some of the horrible things that her aunt did to her.

“Ba aunt benzekonda kunimenya, elo benzonigoneka panja usiku (my aunt beat me up and she made me sleep outside). Benzo ni menya nama pulanga ndiye vilonda venilinavo (she beat me with planks and that’s why I have scars),” says Christine.
And a social welfare officer said Christine is among many children that are being abused and was lucky to survive.

“It’s a miracle that she survived the whole ordeal because if this case was not reported the girl would have died. It looked like she was being starved and as a result she lost so much weight. I urge members of the community to report such cases because it benefits the children,” says the officer.

Meanwhile, district social welfare officer for Lusaka district Henry Njovu expressed sadness at the abuse of Christine.
“If a child is not yours biologically you have no right to mistreat him or her. I’m urging parents to talk to their children about abuse, be it sexual or physical, so that if it happens to them they will be able to say something about it,” says Njovu.
Meanwhile, the orphanage’s programmes coordinator disclosed that Christine was in good health.

“We took her for an HIV test which came out negative and she is now fine. When she first came, her condition was bad and she was scared to be touched by anyone, but now she can interact with people,” says the orphanage coordinator.