The eight-year-old girl from a farm in Bindura, who was raped and impregnated allegedly by two teenage brothers from the same farm, started menstruating at just nine months, it has emerged.
The girl’s mother on Friday told The Herald that she started to change her daughter’s blood-stained nappies when she was a nine-months-old baby. She said:
At nine months my baby changed and started menstruating. I was in Marondera where I went to a hospital.
I was told that the baby was supposed to bleed at three days old and I was supposed to squeeze her breasts.
I was advised to return if the problem persisted. The following month she menstruated and I had to add cotton wool to her nappies. At this time, she was learning to walk.
In 2017, she separated from her husband and moved with the children to the Chesa area in Mt Darwin.
She went on the radio to seek help and was directed to a traditional healer in Mozambique. She said:
The problem stopped briefly and resumed. In July the bleeding stopped and I was happy that her problem was over. Had I known earlier, my child could have been assisted.
In all the places where I was seeking help, no one told me that my child is pregnant.
I would leave the children in the custody of my mother for two days as I went to Harare to collect rentals.
Last night I contemplated committing suicide. I am in pain. The future of my child has been destroyed.
All I wish for is to relocate from this area. I cannot imagine her life when she comes back.
The girl was a learner at Kambira Primary School before she dropped out after falling pregnant.
The headmaster, Gibson Chigamha, insisted that the minor should be taken to Bindura Hospital after he was not convinced that her bulging stomach was due to illness.
This was after the school heard about the Tsholotsho case of a nine-year-old minor who recently gave birth. Said Chigamha:
When the child joined the school in Grade Two, her mother explained to us that she started menstrual cycles at nine months and she will miss school for three to four days to deal with her periods.
We set aside sanitary pads from our guidance and counselling so that she could use them whenever she needed them.
A few months ago, we were advised that the child was not feeling well and was failing to relieve herself.
… I saw her on Wednesday before class, she was holding a chair. Seeing her body changes I decided to take the child to the hospital and I contacted the mother who agreed.
We were given an uncle to accompany us together with two female teachers.
The teachers were skeptical and were only convinced after they saw a foetus on a pregnancy scan machine.