Non Penetrative

Sexual abuse is unwanted sexual activity, with perpetrators using force, making threats or taking advantage of victims (now known as survivors) without their prior consent. Researchers have found that most survivors and perpetrators know each other, as opposed to abuse in which the perpetrator is a complete stranger. Child sexual abuse is defined as any use of children for the sexual pleasure of adults.1 The sexual acts can either be penetrative or non- penetrative, as well as non- contact forms. Penetrative can be vaginal, oral or anal by means of penis, finger or an object. Non- penetrative may be in the form of exhibitionism, fondling, exposure to pornography and solicitation to engage in sexual activity. In the short run, sexual abuse can

More than one-quarter of women (27.3%) and approximately 1 in 9 men (10.8%) have experienced some form of unwanted sexual contact in their lifetime; and nearly one-third of women (32.1%) and nearly 1 in 8 men (13.3%) experienced some type of noncontact unwanted sexual experience in their lifetime.3 According to a 2010 American National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence survey, nearly 1 in 5 women (18.3%) and 1 in 71 men (1.4%) in the USA have been raped at some time in their life.4 Rape results in physical symptoms including but not limited to pelvic, lumbar and abdominal pain, reproductive abnormalities ( infertility, premature labour and delivery and various birth complications), infections such as HIV and sexually transmitted diseases, and psychological/ mental symptoms (fear, anger, sadness, anxiety, shame, misery, depression, low self esteem, insomnia, nightmares, suicide attempts).4,5 Many rape survivors develop fistulas, which may be rectovaginal fistula (RVF) or Genitourinary fistulas (VVF), often requiring or resulting in multiple complex surgical interventions.5 Loss of virginity, pregnancy, loss of family members and personal belongings are some of the losses that may be associated with sexual abuse.5 The definition of sexual violence is encompassed in the 1993 UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, which defines violence against women as: “Any act of gender- based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological

To date 551 cases of child sexual violence survivors (16 years of age and under) have been attended to at the clinic. Their details are captured by trained attending nurses on paper based intake forms, medical affidavits and laboratory registers, which are archived at the clinic. Demographic data of clients, characteristics of the abuse event (type, place, date and number of events), details of the perpetrator, clinical examination findings, treatment plan, lab results, number of reviews and other variables are captured. Some of this data is transmitted onwards to national level on a monthly basis for workload analysis. Transcribing this raw data from these source documents into useful information by creating an electronic dataset will enable us to analyze the data for trends and demographic characteristics of the child sexual violence survivors and their outcomes in