WHO-VAW CORR 5.indd

... I don’t feel well and I just cry. There are times that I want to be dead, I even thought of killing myself or poisoning myself and my kids, because I think if I have suffered that much, how much would my kids suffer if I am no longer there... Woman interviewed in Peru has sex, the more likely it is that the encounter was forced (23). For example, in the Rakai study mentioned above, whereas 26% of young women who first had sex when they were younger than 14 years of age described the event as coerced, this proportion fell to 10% among those whose sexual debut was at age 16 years or older (22). Even greater differences were documented in some of the WHO study sites. The causes and consequences of child sexual abuse need to be addressed, and given higher priority in public health programmes. Similarly, issues of coercion, in particular forced sex, and consent need to be integrated into adolescent sexual and reproductive health programmes and HIV prevention initiatives.