Gender activist, Dela Goldheart has started a social media campaign to help get justice a a young lady, Adzo who brutally got raped by her boss.
According to Dela on her social media page, “…several elders, opinion leaders, and political figures from the rapist’s village are trying to pressurize the young woman’s family to “withdraw” the case from court”
Apart from helping get justice for Adzo, Dela is appealing to public to come to Adzo’s aid with donations for her education and psychological treatment.
These are Dela’s appeal:
1. You can help by sharing this story as widely as you can. Let’s make sure that those asking to withdraw the case understand that our eyes are on them.
2. Let us find psychological support for Adzo. I don’t know what she is going through but I know it will help her greatly to have someone neutral to talk to and someone competent to understand her mental state enough to help her recover.
3. It will also help to contribute financially to support Adzo and her family. They have been doing a lot of rounds – transportation etc. I can’t help but wonder how they are funding this and the extra pressure it is putting on them. Adzo’s grandmother no longer works as she used to due to aging and health issues. With the current situation, Adzo is also out of work. When Adzo was bleeding, she couldn’t be taken to the hospital immediately because they didn’t have money to do so. I used my personal funds to do the hospital rounds (maybe it is time I register an NGO but this is a story for another day).
4. Can we get Adzo admission and sponsorship to further her education? If she wasn’t home, maybe she wouldn’t have suffered this terrible faith.”
HELP ADZO GET JUSTICE
This is one of the most difficult stories I have had to write. I spent part of my weekend running around medical centers in the capital. Why? A man who should have protected a young woman working under him chose to rape her brutally, leaving her traumatized and bleeding days after the incident.
As I type, several elders, opinion leaders, and political figures from the rapist’s village are trying to pressurize the young woman’s family to “withdraw” the case from court. But how do you withdraw such a case? Do they understand what it means to be raped? It’s the most violent thing a woman’s body could go through. It leaves scars on you for the rest of your life.
When I met the young woman over the weekend, she was in a mask. She explained that she no longer felt comfortable showing her face in public. Although she isn’t the one who should be ashamed, she understands too well what our society does to women who suffer rape. It broke up my heart (yes, I am being emotional).
A little over a week ago, Adzo’s boss, Benson (fake names picked to protect the survivor and let justice take its course) sent her to take a bag of pure water to his house for him. Adzo obeyed and took the water to the house. She has been working with Benson for a week. Her grandparents took her to Benson to assist her to work in the domestic service industry. Benson runs a domestic services company. Adzo and her siblings stay with their grandmother who looks after them. When Adzo completed Senior High School, her grandmother took her to Benson to see if he could assist Adzo to be earning a living while they look for money to send her to the university. Adzo passed her exams but had to remain home because her parents couldn’t afford the cost of tertiary education.
According to Adzo, Mr. Benson followed her to the house. She met him on her way back to the office. He asked whether she swept and mopped his room as well. She replied in the negative. So Benson asked her to go back and do so. She obliged. But when she was done with the room, Benson asked her to lay his bed for her. Poor naive Adzo. Benson jumped on her while she was laying the bed. Although she screamed, no one came to her rescue. Benson lives with his bedridden mother. She could not come to Adzo’s rescue even if she had heard her scream. Adzo said she struggled but gave up at a point. Mr. Benson had struggled with her and finally covered her face with a pillow. He left her with neck and back pain several days after the incident.
Adzo rushed home to tell her parents what had happened and they took her to the hospital. It took four days for Mr. Benson to be arrested. In all those four days, Mr. Benson never checked on Adzo once. Even if nothing had happened, was it normal for your worker not to have shown up at work for days and you wouldn’t check on her? Since Benson was arrested and they appeared in court once, various powerful people have been working to withdraw the case. This includes rich men from the town, church elders who should know better, political heads who belong to the same political party as Mr. Benson, and traditional elders who are used to handling cases at home. I respect all these people and I have no issue with them. But my problem is they need to understand that this issue cannot be handled at home. Apart from the fact that it is a criminal case, Adzo and her parents want justice. Why are they being pressured to withdraw the case? Would they have let it go if Adzo was their daughter?
Dear friend, I need your help. I want you to help me to make sure that Adzo gets all the help she needs. Hers is a struggling family without powerful friends. They are being offered financial incentives. But even if they take the money and “withdraw” the case, would it stop other young women from getting raped? How many girls have this man rapped? How many more would he rape thinking he can get away with it? Adzo deserves justice and Mr. Benson deserves to be locked away for several years. If nothing at all, it will give him an opportunity to learn and the community will be safer for girls and young women.
How can you help?
1. You can help by sharing this story as widely as you can. Let’s make sure that those asking to withdraw the case understand that our eyes are on them.
2. Let us find psychological support for Adzo. I don’t know what she is going through but I know it will help her greatly to have someone neutral to talk to and someone competent to understand her mental state enough to help her recover.
3. It will also help to contribute financially to support Adzo and her family. They have been doing a lot of rounds – transportation etc. I can’t help but wonder how they are funding this and the extra pressure it is putting on them. Adzo’s grandmother no longer works as she used to due to aging and health issues. With the current situation, Adzo is also out of work. When Adzo was bleeding, she couldn’t be taken to the hospital immediately because they didn’t have money to do so. I used my personal funds to do the hospital rounds (maybe it is time I register an NGO but this is a story for another day).
4. Can we get Adzo admission and sponsorship to further her education? If she wasn’t home, maybe she wouldn’t have suffered this terrible faith.
#Justice4Adzo
