WE ARE ONE WORLD
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
According to police statistics, week after week, rape – especially of girls between the ages of 10 and 14 – is the most reported crime.
Sexual violence occurs across all socio-economic and cultural backgrounds; women may be socialized to accept, tolerate or rationalize it.
A weak justice system, the lingering violence of the war and an unwillingness to report instances compound the situation. No one is safe from assault.
Note: Liberia remains one of the poorest countries in Africa with the majority of its population below the poverty line.
The UNMIL Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Rule of Law, Henrietta Mensu-Bonsu, said starkly:
“The children of Liberia have indicated that their one main concern is security and that they are not safe anywhere – not in the home, not at church, not in the mosque, not in the classroom"
They are vulnerable everywhere because so many different groups prey on them.”
Nearly 300,000 refugees and internally displaced persons have returned to their homes in 2005 after the end of a brutal 14-year civil war.
Peaceful national elections have been held, but the re-establishment of state authority and law and order has only just begun.
The state of social services country-wide is still far below pre-war levels.
More than one third of the population, and an even higher proportion of the country’s children, lives on less than $1 a day.
RAPE VICTIMS LIBERIA AFRICA
Rape victims Liberia
Victims of sexual violence suffer health and psychological burdens that affect every aspect of life.
One 15-year-old told of a horrific attack in her own home, perpetrated by a friend of her father. “He called me in his room,” she recalled.
“He held me and lay me down on the bed. I began to shout. He had a knife beside him. He said that if I talked he would kill me. He then put a cloth in my mouth. I was fighting to get out.”
To help young girls and women reclaim their lives, UNICEF supports a safe-house programme that provides food, medicine and counselling.
“We eat three times a day. The counsellors play with us and joke with us. We play baseball, we play tag. It’s a place where we all can be happy,”
said the thankful 15-year-old.
UNICEF Representative in Liberia Rozanne Chorlton said the safe house is
“a confidential location where girls who have been badly sexually exploited can be taken and cared for, and given the kind of intense counselling and psychosocial support they need – until they can re-grasp their lives and restore their dignity and self confidence enough to be able to go back to their communities.”
Sirleaf JohnsonSince the inauguration of Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as Africa’s first female head of state in 2006, the issue of sexual exploitation and violence towards women and children has become even more salient.
“The President has made it very clear that the international community, together with the people of Liberia, need to work together to combat sexual and gender-based violence,”
said the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Recovery and Governance at UNMIL, Jordan Ryan.
“Courts have to work, prosecution has to work [and] people have to have a zero tolerance to rape.”
Today, as Liberia struggles to recover from its violent past, sexual violence and exploitation is under attack from all angles.
Safe houses, new laws, new partnerships, increased monitoring and additional public awareness of the crime are making concrete inroads to create a safer, more prosperous future for all Liberia’s people.
poor children Liberia
Liberia’s infant and under-5 mortality rates remain among the five highest in the world.
More than 15 per cent of children die before reaching their first birthday.
Preventable diseases like malaria and measles are among the leading killers of children.
Malnutrition and respiratory infections kill thousands of children each year.
Nearly 40 per cent of children under age five suffer from stunting as a result of malnutrition.
Nearly 40 per cent of the population does not have access to safe water, and nearly 75 per cent does not have access to adequate sanitation.
Statistics show an HIV/AIDS prevalence rate of 5.9 per cent; the actual rate is believed to be higher.
Armed conflict, HIV/AIDS and other diseases have orphaned an estimated 230,000 children.
Half a million children do not attend school.
Two thirds of students are being taught by unqualified teachers. Girls’ enrollment rates lag far behind those for boys.
Despite the cessation of fighting, armed forces along the borders with Guinea and Cote d’Ivoire continue to recruit children into their ranks.
There are many ways you can help. you can sponsor a child online or adopt one if you have what it takes. There are also great organizations like UNICEF, feed the children, habitat for humanity, world vision, etc.
you can support any of these organizations in whatever ways you can to help make a difference.
You can also help by spreading the word to others. You can also help by supporting peace and saying NO to war and violence.
It is never too late. you can save a live today so act now.
