Revai was devastated. She immediately called her brother to look into the rape allegations while she organized time off from her employer. He confirmed that Chipo had indeed confirmed the rapes and urged her to come home so they could look into the matter. Revai immediately came home and accompanied by some relatives, they confronted the accused person John, but he denied it. A report was made to the police and Chipo was taken for medical examination by a doctor, who could only confirm that penetration had occurred. The case went to court and the accused, with Joyce’s aunt in his corner was acquitted. Following this rape, Chipo’s life will never be the same again. Before the rape she was a bright teenager who loved school and was looking forward to advancing with her education. Her teachers were looking forward to a bright future for Chipo. Following the rape and the negative publicity and resulting stigma in the small town where she comes from, Chipo became a shadow of her former self. She requested to be transferred to a rural school to live with her grandmother, as far away from the man who had raped her as possible. She did this at great cost to her education because the rural school she transferred to does not even begin to compare to the good urban school she was attending. The rapist on the other hand continues to live his life without being held to account for the heinous crime that he committed. Chipo’s story throws up some important issues that need highlighting. It has already been noted that the economic and political crises led to the mass exodus of Zimbabweans for other countries in search of better opportunities. Children were often left behind with relatives and this in cases such as Chipo’s made them vulnerable to abuse. This calls for more community sensitisation to ensure that there are adults who look out for children who might be at risk of, or are actual victims of sexual and other violence and abuse. While the Protocol on the Multi-Sectoral Management of Sexual Abuse and Violence in Zimbabwe states that a report should be made within 48 hours, the reality is that there are often many barriers that prevent children from reporting. Many are threatened into silence by the abuser, while many fear the consequences of reporting as they are often dependant on the abuser for food and shelter. In Chipo’s case, the abuser in threatening her made it clear that she and her aunt were living under his roof and with her mother away in South Africa and her father dead, she would be homeless if she told anyone about the rape. He also told her that no one would believe her over him and as it turned out, he was not lying as her aunt refused to believe her and in fact accused her of trying to steal her husband. Nor did the courts believe her as they chose the accused’s version over the child’s version of events. 15 11