Sexual Assault (Rape)
Rape Cases (RC) handled by H4AB in 2019
- The case of Joy
Rape how many more do we need to hear or read of before we scream out our furry? What could 3 years old Joy have done to warrant such? The 50+ year old so called ‘a gogo’ because he has plenty money in the neighborhood (that’s his house, sadly his face wasn’t captured), has defiled a child of 8 before so we hear. This time around he is going to get it. Joy’s parents are peasants and she was left in the care of her grandmother while they went to the farm. She was playing outside when a Gogo lurred her to his house with whatever. We raised some funds and sent for medicals, and contacted the authorities to kick start and follow up the prosecution of that man.
- The case of Lily
Rape again in the city: What’s going on??? 13 years old raped by her 51 years old uncle. Her mother doesn’t want to press charges because she is dependent on her late husband’s family. She lives in their home with her 5 children and doesn’t seem to be doing anything to be economically independent. What do we do in such a case? How can we #bethehope for little Lily? Cases like these leave us with more questions than we can ever answer. This case was therefore sadly dropped.
- The case of Judy
Trigger alert: vicious rape of a 3 year old
Judy’s mother gave me permission to use the pictures you see above. She is barely 19 and her daughter’s life and hers have been damaged to an extent we can never imagine. This case was brought to our attention by Ms Belle Sonkey and The Network for Hope and Empowerment Cameroon. Judy urgently needed surgery especially because of the multiple infections she suffered following the sodomy, rape and rudimentary first aid procedures at the district hospital she was taken to. Thanks to intensive and generous crowd support and funding following our robust social media campaign, surgery was done and healing was much faster than anticipated. Judy can walk again today although another surgery to loosen the stitches of the previous surgery, and to close up the opened colon is scheduled for September. All our prayers for Judy and parents.
- The case of Nadege
Did you know rape can lead to a mental illness? The trauma alone of the reality of what happened can shock the brain into partial lobes shut down or stress. When we received Nadege, she was so disoriented and only spoke pidgin. Sleep at all times was scary. Nightmares and stomach ache we were concerned about. We took her to the hospital on a Monday, tests were to be done on the next day a Tuesday, and we went together to church to pray on Wednesday. A month later, Nadege is far on her recovery journey, fully integrated at the center and now speaks English. She has forgiven her rapist and wants to be the hope to other victims like she once was.
- The case of Courage
Our Founder was called by a first responder to meet Courage an 8 year old who had been raped twice by her uncle in law. She was in still in pain and so scared. It took our founder some motherly cajoling to hug her and gradually win her over. The next day, when visited at her mum’s she insisted she wanted to come to the center for the Easter holidays. She came in and funds were raised publicly to take her to the hospital and make her stay comfortable. She quickly adapted to the routines at the center and even tried her hand at cooking some jollof rice. Two weeks later she returned to her mum’s after getting the assurance she could come back to the center during the summer holidays. We are equally representing her in court, since our founder is a lawyer. Courage is well on her recovery journey.
- The case of Blessing
Blessing is a 10 years old child who was raped twice by a young man her mum brought in to live with them in her tiny room in Bonaberi, Douala. The young man was supposedly a ‘church brother’ of her mum’s, who had come in to live with them because his own parents had been transferred to the other end of term in middle of the school year. He took advantage of the frequent absences of her mother who was traveling chasing the much-courted US Diversity lottery visa. It is another sad case which was so unceremoniously dropped when the mother insisted, she didn’t want the rapist prosecuted nor her daughter staying at the center more than 1 week. It must be mentioned that she had brought the daughter and son together complaining about behavioural issues.
- The case of Bijoux
Bijoux is a 19 years old whose mum brought her to the center because she was glaringly mentally challenged. On further investigations, it was revealed that she was raped often by a nephew and sexually assaulted by her father who had died some years back. She was an only child and in her own words she felt like disappearing from the world altogether like her dad. She had actually attempted suicide twice and could be assessed to be in the developmental stage of a 12-year-old. Sadly, her mother was expecting that revelation nor comfortable with our prodding and recommendations, so she caused the case to be dropped.
- The case of Georgiana
Let’s be the Hope for Georgiana, sexually abused and raped for a total of 10 years. The
Sexual abuse of our children and young girls in Cameroon is becoming a call for concern.
We got to know of Georgina when we received the following distress whatsapp chat on the 15th of March 2019 : « Bonjour Madame, J’aimerais que vous preniez le temps de lire ce document
J’ai besoin d’aide et je pense que vous pouvez m’aider à avancer dans ma vie
Mais je vous supplie de le lire jusqu’à la fin
C’est long je sais. Mais j’ai essayé d’être brève du mieux que je pouvais
J’ai eu votre contact via un site internet après une longue recherche sur le net
SVP ne me rejeter pas ; and our Founder’s reply was thus – Salut Georgina, je vais la lire et revenir vers vous ok? Non je ne vous rejete pas».
She was in a nutshell pleading that we read the 4-page document she sent to our founder titled “Une enfance vole” or a stolen childhood, in which she narrated her ordeal. From sexual assault at the age of 8 moving on to rape sometime thereafter, she had lost faith completely in life and had sunk into a depression, self-harm, drinking and smoking to numb the pain. She begged not to be rejected, large indication of her traumatized self and mental health imbalance. She was received at the center, and funds raised to cover her medicals and sessions. She was eventually taken in by a woman with a big heart and she is well on her recovery journey. We keep in touch regularly and she plans on creating a YouTube channel to raise awareness on sexual assault and rape using her own story.
- The case of Fortune
Rape ruined her and now she is gone. Fortune, a 10 year old viciously and consistently raped for 2 years by her aunt’s husband. Could there be any more horrendous crime than this? What can move the powers that be to review the laws and procedures in place so that Justice can done swiftly? The victim is gone, who can bring a complaint in the case where her aunt doesn’t? The later hadn’t reported all along because she claimed to want to protect her marriage. What are we as a society turning into? Our association Hope for the Abused and Battered isn’t letting this case die a natural death. We wrote an official complaint to the delegation of Social Affairs and are still awaiting their feedback.
