Hannah Kargbo, rape counsellor, Sierra Leone, “Parents tend to blame the children”

In Sierra Leonean culture it is often the rape victims not the rapists who are blamed for the attack. Hannah Kargbo, a nurse who counsels abused women in the capital Freetown, explains how prejudice heaps more pain on already vulnerable girls.

Kargbo works at the Rainbo Centre, a rape and gender-based violence counseling and health clinic funded by the International Rescue Committee. More than half the abuse victims treated at the centres are aged between 0 and 15.

“Most of the children that come here were not only raped but also physically assaulted by their parents.

“Parents tend to blame the children, saying they should not have let it happen to them. They don’t take into account the age difference – how is a four year-old child supposed to fight off a 40 year-old man?

“They think that they gave their children everything they need, so why would they go out looking for sex?

“The beatings are serious. They scald the children, shave their heads, and insert chili peppers into the vaginas. They beat them first to get an explanation of what happened, and then again as a punishment.

“Most of the abuse in the 11-15 year-old range is being done by people they know, but the male attackers are usually older – for example 11 year-old girls with 17 year-old boys.

“70 percent of the girls that come in have a sexually transmitted disease. Gonorrhea is common. I recently saw a 14 year-old girl who contracted HIV/AIDS because of rape.

“Most of them had been abused over a long period of time before the attacker was caught.

“Although underage marriage is common in Sierra Leone, most of the cases we get here are unmarried. It is not considered rape if the girl is married.

“If someone is raped we urge their family to go to court, but they will have to wait a year or more for a trial, even longer.

“Often the perpetrator is someone well-known in the community, and he will exert pressure on the family to settle it out of court. If the family refuses, they will be ostracised.”

nr/aj