**2. Rationale**

In the era of HIV infection with the highest mortalities in the sub-Saharan region documenting the characteristics of children who are at risk of being sexually abused is an important strategy to reduce horizontal transmission of HIV in children.

The current preventative strategies for children from acquiring HIV are enveloped in the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) and there are no studies in Zambia to characterise risk factors on children who may be sexually abused nor strategies to prevent HIV acquisition in these vulnerable children as far as we are aware.

In a survey by Mathews et al (Mathews et al, 2011) of girls aged between 13 -24 years, respondents who lived in a rural environment were significantly less likely than those in an urban environment to report having experienced sexual violence before the age of 18. Compared with respondents who had been close to their biological mothers as children, those who had not been close to her had higher odds of having experienced sexual violence, as did those who had had no relationship with her at all.

In the second quarter of 2003, Zambian police handled 300 cases of child rape and some experts believe that for every case reported another 10 go unreported. (Agence France-Presse 2003). The number of reported cases and the realization that these cases were likely to be the tip of iceberg, in combination with high HIV prevalence led to the identification of the need to establish a comprehensive multidisciplinary centre to train health workers in the recognition of CSA, to increase public awareness of CSA, to improve management of sexually abused children with an emphasis on preventing HIV acquisition and document the characteristics and risk factors of sexually abused children.
