Parents Of Tsholotsho’s Raped, Pregnant 9-year-old Want To Adopt Grandchild
The parents of the then nine-year-old Tsholotsho girl who fell pregnant last year and successfully delivered a baby girl through a Caesarian section, have pleaded with the Government to be allowed to legally adopt their grandchild after the Government took custody of the baby after she was born.
Their plea has been made through the Department of Social Welfare where they want their grandchild’s birth certificate to be taken in their names.
Authorities established that the mother was impregnated by a then 13-year-old relative after the father of the girl was initially arrested on suspicion of raping his daughter.
The baby was delivered at the United Bulawayo Hospitals on 14 November 2022.
The mother has since returned to school in Bulawayo and is in Grade Three.
Speaking to The Sunday News last week at the family homestead in Tsholotsho, Matabeleland North Province, the mother of the girl (now 10 years old), gave an insight into what has transpired in the past 12 months. She said:
I left the home where they were kept in December last year and returned to Tsholotsho.
By the time I left, they had both stabilised healthwise, so I returned to the village. Since then, we have been visiting the children in Bulawayo.
The challenge is that we are having difficulties travelling to check on them monthly. It is costing us a lot.
The children are at different homes where they are being kept in Bulawayo.
She said they have asked the Government through the Department of Social Welfare to be given legal custody of both minors. She said:
We want them both, they are our children. We can leave the 10-year-old for a while because she is still in school in Bulawayo.
We can see her during the school holidays until we find a lasting solution. What we are appealing for is to be given legal custody of our grandchild now. We want full custody of her.
We are working on this plan and we have informed the Department of Social Welfare which is handling the matter, so we are waiting for their response.
We want those (children) that are here at the homestead to grow up knowing their siblings, they need to get familiar with each other, which we believe is good for their wellbeing.
An official at the home where the one-year-old is being taken care of told The Sunday News that the baby was doing well. Said the official:
The baby is doing well. There are no issues at all. The children were here at the same institution initially but we quickly separated them so that the mother could go back to being the child she is, she needed to move on with life so they had to be separated.
We are glad that she is back in school and all is well. She has been attending children’s camps and really enjoying herself.
The fate of the boy who is said to be responsible for the pregnancy is being handled by the courts and legal systems, said the official.
It also emerged that the social worker who was assigned to the Tsholotsho girl’s case from the onset and managed to expose what had happened, visually impaired Brighton Ndebele was killed in a road traffic accident in July.
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