Published
5 years agoon
By
FrimpongMadam Dorothy unfortunately is a house wife who lost her parents at the age of 10, she has a younger sister she is struggling to cater through school. She has no option or anyone to turn to for little support to enable her get a single bedroom of her own to move in with her two kids from her abusive and estranged husband.
Due to her financial difficulty, she chooses to live with her abusive husband despite how risky and dangerous it is for her and that of her two young children. If only she had enough money or support from either family or friends, she could have managed to get a single room for herself to secure her life from the husband who has turned her into a punching bag.
The shelter house provided for abused women and children through the government by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection. Where can there be found? Are there in good shape? Is it accessible to women been abused daily by their husbands or are there full to capacity and can’t take more?
In Ghana, most women abused by their partners or family members are suffering in silence, pain and bitterness and they have no idea how they can cope on their own if they move out of their matrimonial homes. Who or where do they go to. Most women who boldly report their husbands or partners for excessive or daily abuses are seen as heartless and ill-mannered even by their own fellow women.
There’s no doubt most women suffer in silence and refuse to report forms of abuses until they loose their lives to it.Most women are losing their teeth, minds,self-esteem, confidence and their lives to maltreatment and horrible abuses.
We hear women been killed by their partners every day, we observe women been maimed by their partners in our communities, compound houses or even in our own families. What do we do as good citizens of the country to help such women? Do we empower these women to speak up or do we in anyway help protect them or advise these women on the best way of reporting in order to safeguard their lives. Or do we criticize, prevent or stigmatize them from reporting or speaking about it in totality until they loose their lives completely.
Most Mother in laws and Sister in laws who witnessed their daughter in laws been beaten mercilessly or wickedly by their brothers or sons either look on unconcerned or rather prevent these women from reporting their brothers or sons thereby shielding them from facing the laws while these women loose themselves completely in life due to unstoppable harassment, abuse and torture.
Most women who have been married for years has come to a point where abuse to them is normal and just an ordinary issue in marriage just because their partners won’t let them rest from these torture, harassment and pain.
“A UN report released on November 25, 2018 found that, of the 87,000 women murdered in 2017, 50,000 were murdered by an intimate partner or a family member. Africa and the Americas recorded the highest number of women killed by an intimate partner or a family member. Now a home is considered a safe haven, so if women are abused by their partners at their homes, what then becomes of our societies and where do they go from their homes then?
Figures on Domestic Violence in Ghana indicates that, 33-37% of women have experienced abuse in the form of Intimate Partner Violence in their relationships. Out of this number, most of these women like Dorothy as in the case study needs a place to turn to or go to from their abused partners where their lives can be protected, especially those with no immediate family members or support from friends and loved ones.
Unfortunately what is the state of our shelter homes, how many of them do we have in the country, where are these shelter homes located and who can access or move to these shelter homes. The National Commission for Civic Education will help a lot of women by educating Ghanaians especially women on the best forms of reporting abuses that can end their lives in totality.
Early reporting, counselling and managing abusive partners can saves lives of most women in the country. Now, the shelter homes, won’t it help and be best if we get more of these homes in all the regions more so in areas where women are abused frequently so they can stay there for a period of time until these issues are resolved.
Abuse against women is a societal canker that is claiming lives of more women, destroying their self-esteem and confidence. Verbal abuse is the worst form of abuse by some men, for them they won’t use a finger on you but the unprintable words unleashed on women cannot be compared to the venom of a poisonous snake which destroys the inner soul of a woman. In the Akan parlance, ’Wob3su nso na y3buu wo, Obarima n’ano y3ya 3nky3n yiwan’.
Dear our current husbands, our to be husbands, brothers, uncles, Daddies and boo boos, please according to the Bible, we are the weaker vessels and don’t deserve these punches, blows and beatings from you. A weaker vessel cannot in any way struggle with the stronger vessel so kindly save us from the abuses, whether verbal or nonverbal abuses. Please our men we are pleading with you not to destroy us through your beatings, harassment and torture. Please kindly spare us these pain so we can go about our normal duties happily.
Most women get scared to go home after work because there is a man turned wrestler waiting to beat the hell out of her at the least provocation. She is a living being yet dying slowly due to excessive abuse. Dear men please advise or better still stop other men from perpetuating abuse against women wherever you find yourself.
To the women, please lets be each other’s keeper, we should protect ourselves and look out for the best of our sistering wherever we are. Abuse against one woman is abuse against all women. Please let us all stand up and fight against abuse of the sistering. Enough of these abuses. Our men please end it.
By Adwoa Adubia