They also asked for economic opportunities to prevent girls from being forced into marriage or sex for money. The young researchers called on their governments and local authorities to uphold the law and bring the perpetrators of rape and sexual abuse to justice. The child researchers repeatedly suggested that poverty put girls at greater risk of sexual violence, as it forced them into transactional relationships, generally with older adult men. The children perceived the prevalence of rape, early marriage and forced sex work in their communities to be shockingly high.
The children discovered that when girls became pregnant, it was overwhelmingly as a result of sexual abuse by an adult, including school teachers. Between 2016-2019, children in seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa researched the causes and effects of teenage pregnancy in their communities.Ĭhildren shared stories of rape on the way to market, abuse by schoolteachers, and large numbers of girls forced into transactional relationships due to extreme poverty and the high cost of schooling.