RISKY sexual behaviour usually occurs in unfinished, unoccupied buildings and makeshift stalls at night in Ndola’s central business district.
The unforgotten agenda of the girls who have made the streets their new home and a source for their livelihood has seen them inadequately protected or supervised by responsible adults.
These are no longer children but sexual partners to some local patrons who treat them as adults and expose them to early sexual initiation, a situation that has taken a devastating toll on their lives and society as a whole.
The innocent girls, who are ignorant about matters regarding sexual health and safety and something not their concern, experience hunger and sleep in dirty places.
Yet they usually choose to remain on the streets.
Although the sexual abuse and violence happening on the streets has not only affected the girls, street boys too are at risk of sodomy from male adults and men patronising at night.
According to UNICEF, around 15 million adolescent girls between 15 and 19 years old have experienced forced sex during their lifetime.
However, many of these street children come from broken homes where there is no care, love and protection and have no access to education.
The sexual violence among young girls happening on streets is usually perpetrated by boys and men who they come in contact with very day and so this exposes them to sexual violence and abuse.
Currently, there is no strategy that has been used to protect street girls from sexual exploitation and HIV and AIDS infection.
Notably, there is overwhelming evidence that these street girls engage in sexual activity either in exchange for money or seeking protection.
Sometimes, they are either forced into sexual activities.

The risky sexual behaviour of some patrons visiting social places and some night shift workers in the evening, who have taken advantage of the girls, has exposed them to higher risks of infections.
Because the street environment offers no protection against such vulnerability, the girls have to survive and sometimes trade for sex with other people, including older peers who are also known to abuse them repeatedly.
The girls, who are in their adolescent and teenage stage, do not care about their vulnerability and exploitation which has opened them to the risk of HIV and AIDS as well as other sexually transmitted infections.
In Ndola, for instance, the rapid increase in the number of street girls associated with urbanisation and mental health challenges raises a concern and warrants immediate government attention.
Among the most serious threats to the health of these street girls is the high degree of exposure to sexual abuse.
Sexual violence cannot be ruled out as the weaker ones easily fall prey and since there is no one reporting the sexual abuse and violence they experience, the abuse has continued as they face additional sexual violence which continues to put them more at risk.
Street children are vulnerable to a variety of problems which include physical, psychological and sexual exploitation as well as social isolation.
Added to the sexual exploitation the street girls face, another group of street girls sent to sell merchandise in the evening has been vulnerable to sexual violence that remains unreported.
In Ndola’s Northrise and Kansenshi residential areas, another category of young street girls below the age of 15 years returning home after selling fire sticks, maize and groundnuts is also on the increase.
As late as 21:00 hours, they walk back home and sometimes knock on doors of houses to sell the leftover merchandise after leaving Kansenshi shopping centre and have to meet passers-by who are under the influence of alcohol.
Studies indicate that girls in their teenage and adolescent stages are more than five times more likely to experience sexual assault than males and it is through such outings that many of these girls begin to experience increasing rates of sexual harassment and assault as they get back home.
Sadly, the girls cannot negotiate for safer sex or be consistent with condom use. So, at some point they disappear after failing to cope with their pregnancy and re-appear selling with their babies on the back.
As for the street girls whose shelter is in town and the multiple sleeping partners they engage with, it has not been easy to know who is responsible for their pregnancies.
The reality is that those that fall prey to unsafe abortion and health challenges resulting from sexual transmitted infection do not return on the street because they either become terminally ill or simply die without society knowing.
Similarly, those that survive the street for some reason grow into adults who continue to face sexual abuse or violence in their communities and are potential victims of intimate partner violence.
Because of the continuous sexual violence, these poor girls continue to experience, one can tell how psychiatric disorders such as depression and increased use of substances have led to girls with mental health challenges roaming the streets.
With the extent and nature of street children slowly becoming a serious social problem, there is need to address the sexual violence and abuse among street girls.
Whether this is happening on the streets of Lusaka, Ndola, Livingstone or other towns in Zambia, we need a quick solution as the effects and physical mental being this has on the girls has a large bearing on the nation in future.
For now, the cycle of risky sexual behaviour in the dark corners of streets and unfinished structures in the central business continues.
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