Facing realities of violence against women & Children
One day while I was going for my routine visits, I passed by a home where children were screaming for help in a loud tone. “Help us! We are dying!” they said.
I branched off to that home to find out what was happening and only to find a woman cutting her children with a razor blade and they were bleeding. The young girls were aged between seven and nine years. Present as these events unfolded was their father watching the bleeding children.
On asking him why he did not do anything for what the wife was doing to the girls, the woman said, “Leave me alone with my children. Are you the one who gave birth to them?” The husband responded “Leave the woman, those are her children.”
I could not let this happen in my presence. “Leave them”. I said. As a result, both the woman and her husband wanted to fight me. I called the village counselor, who later called the police to rescue the children and the perpetrators were picked up by the police.
I put in my personal money to save the children to see that they were treated. Surprisingly, the police instead asked me to identify myself, who I worked for, how and why I interfered in family matters. What saved me was the Counselor who threatened to call the District Police Commander of Kyenjojo and inform him about the child abuses. The children were finally rescued by the intervention of the LC 1 Chairperson.
I put in my money in terms of airtime, facilitated the police with transport to come and arrest the perpetrators, and I was never paid. What I am trying to say, is that we have a duty to help our people involved in GBV cases and end this violence against women and girls in our communities.
The Author is a Catechist from Butunduzi sub parish, Kyenjojo district.
