ASP Faustina Awumey, DOVVSU Coordinator, Ho, addressing school children as part of the sensitisation campaign
“We wish we could easily report our relatives who abuse our children to the police. But madam, most of these perpetrators are the breadwinners in the house. If we report and they are arrested, who will help us take care of these same victims and their other siblings,” was the concern raised by Dorothy Adzorhoho (not real name), mother of a sexually abused victim, in Ho in the Volta Region.
Dorothy is a mother of four and a trader married to a man she calls Steve.
Dorothy and Steve got married in 2014 when she already had the victim from another marriage. She and Steve now have three children together.
She says she got to know that Steve had been abusing her daughter, who turns 12 this year, months ago.
“I could not believe it when my daughter told me that Steve has been sexually abusing her anytime I am away and so I had to move her to live with my sister at Denu,” Dorothy said.
According to reports, sexual violence has been on the increase in the Volta Region since 2019.
Statistics show that a total of 443 boys and girls were abused sexually in the region within the last three years.
In 2019, a total of 105 victims were abused, while in 2020 and 2021, 230 and 108 victims were sexually abused respectively.
The police in the Volta Region have indicated that among the crimes committed were rape, sextortion, defilement, and indecent assault.
The police believe that these numbers could go up if parents and guardians of all abused victims report to the police to bring the perpetrators to book.
“Some family members and opinion leaders wage into the issue in the resolve to settle the matter at home to avoid the arrest and incarceration of their abusive relatives,” says DSP Efia Tenge, Volta Regional Police Public Relations Officer (PRO).
She says some of the parents of these victims report the matter to the police but for reasons best known to them, they refuse to follow up after they are given hospital forms for medical care.
“We have realised that either some of the complainants do not go to the hospital for medical attention or decide to settle the matter at home,” she added.
DSP Tenge said personnel from the Volta Regional Branch of the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) often follow up on these cases but realised that some of the parents of the victims after initial report move the children from their locations to unknown locations.
“Others are often bold to tell personnel that they are no longer interested in the case,” she said.
Police Begins sensitisation in schools
DSP Tenge said the public relations Unit in the Volta Region and the Regional DOVVSU have begun sexual abuse education at the various schools within the region.
She said a total of nine schools have so far been visited by the team.
“Among the schools visited included UHAS Basic School, Volta Barracks Basic School, Ho Bankoe EP Primary and JHS, Nuriya Islamic Basic School, Dora Memorial School Complex, Philip Akpo R.C. Basic School and Ho Kpodzi E.P. Primary School, all in the Volta Region.
ASP Faustina Awumey, Volta Regional DOVVSU Coordinator, says about two thousand and thirty (2030) school children from both lower primary, upper primary, and Junior High Schools have had their share of a sensitisation campaign rolled up by the Police Command, Volta Region, to ameliorate the effects of child sexual abuse in the region.
“The pupils were also educated on the general tactics used by offenders before, during and after they defile their victims.
Adding, she said “the girls and boys whose fathers or siblings have been harassing them for sex at home were also told to be bold and report such relatives.”
ASP Faustina Awumey indicated that when parents or guardians defile their children, they are prosecuted and the children are taken from that hostile environment to safety.
She said in recent times, sexual offences are not only limited to the girl child as previously perceived but are extended to boys as well. A typical case in point is the sentencing of 40-year-old Wisdom Atiledza to eight years imprisonment for sodomising a 9-year-old boy in Aflao in January 2022.
Victims mostly abused in the region
According to the DOVVSU coordinator, the perpetrators of this crime mostly resort to the use of gifts as means to lure the children into taking advantage of their vulnerabilities.
ASP Awumey mentioned that children who go hawking mostly become victims.
She advised the children who hawk to desist from entering rooms of their buyers and always stay alert outside while serving their customers.
Effects Of The Abuse
The Deputy Coordinator of DOVVSU, ASP Juliana Mawusi Wiah, on her part spoke about the effects of defilement on victims.
According to her, most of the victims end up with unwanted pregnancies, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, fistula, depression, or trauma.
She advised the teachers not to coach students when cases are to be reported to the police or interfere with evidence by tidying up abused children.
Parents, Teacher Must Get Involve
DSP Effia Tenge encouraged the pupils to report their abusers immediately they encounter such incidents because when they refuse to report, the perpetrator is emboldened to continue with the abuse.
She also advised the teachers to show interest in notable changes in school children and report sexual-related abuses to the police for swift action.
She also cautioned the pupils not to allow their parents or religious leaders to settle such matters at home.
By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey