Joyce Meyer says she was sexually abused by her father. She openly discusses her experience to help other victims

  WHEN someone has been sexually abused in anyway, it is never their fault! Records from the USA show that one in three women will experience sexual abuse during her lifetime. That only 10 to 15 percent of all sexual abuses are reported to police.

The percentage of reported cases in Uganda are thought to be significantly lower, with the police report of 2010 showing there were at least 8,600 sex-related crimes recorded from across Uganda. This figure is estimated to be a mere tip of the iceberg, considering the number of cases that go unreported.

Men are also sometimes victims of sexual abuse, but are less likely to report the abuse than their female counterparts. Many of them fear it would make them appear weak, so they are embarrassed to say.

Sexual abuse is any sexual act performed on someone without his or her consent. It often involves the use of threat, force or blackmail. Cases occur where the victim’s will for the sex is compromised by the statutory age (being a minor) or the influence of alcohol or drugs, unconsciousness or mental state. Under the penal law, it is prohibited for anyone to have sexual intercourse with a girl aged under eighteen, or anyone with a mental instability, during that state of lapse.