Image of Ugandan School girls (source: http://newsofafrica.org/2310.html)
A few quotes:
"I left [school] because I was raped by two guys in my class who were supposedly my friends." -- WH, age thirteen, gang-raped by classmates
"I didn't go back to school for one month after I came forward. Everything reminds me, wearing my school uniform reminds me of what happened. I have dreams. He [the teacher] is in my dreams. He is in the classroom laughing at me. I can hear him laughing at me in my dreams. I sometimes have to pass down the hall where his classroom was. I thought I could see him, still there. I was scared he'll still be there." -- PC, age fifteen, sexually assaulted by teacher at school
"All the touching at school, in class, in the corridors, all day everyday bothers me. Boys touch your bum, your breasts. Some teachers will tell the boys to stop and they may get a warning or detention, but it doesn't work. Other teachers just ignore it. You won't finish your work because they are pestering you the whole time." -- MC, age fourteen, sexually harassed at school
"I can't understand how nobody saw anything or helped my child. The school has caretakers, where were they? I don't feel she is safe at school." -- Mother of LB, a nine-year-old girl gang-raped at school by older classmates
The African government doesn't respond properly or effectively to gendered violence, other organizations have been trying their hardest to let females have the same rights as males in school and in their culture. Girls have encountered sexual violence, such as rape and molestation in school toilets, empty classrooms and hallways, and in hostels and dormitories. Girls that are raped in school are often verbally degraded for it at school, because of this many girls don't tell anyone that they were raped or molested. Girls either start to do poorly in school or just drop out. Some girls even think it's completely normal and that's how men are suppose to treat them, because they have been treated like this since very young.
Some girls in the African school system get pressured by teachers or tutors to have a sexual relationship to get money, or better marks. Or teachers ask girls to come with them because they know that the girls will trust them, shown in the quotation from a 15 year old below.
"I was walking with [a] friend and [the teacher] asked me to come to his room...I thought, he's a teacher, it'll be fine. He gave me a key so that I could get to the boy's hostel [where he lived]. I went to his dorm and walked to the lounge. He gave me a hooch [an alcoholic drink]. I was lame. I knew what was happening to me, but I couldn't move. He picked me up and took me to his room and started taking my clothes off. He took his clothes off. He's twice my size and like five times my weight, and has so many muscles. Then he penetrated me. When I came to, I got up and went to my dorm. My friend said I looked high. I went to bed. Then I just left it. I was scared to tell anyone because I was afraid no one would believe me. I had been raped before and no one
believed me then." She continues onto say what happened when her and her parents try to report the rape, "Me, my mum and my dad went to see the principal and told him what happened. He said he couldn't believe it, and that if it did happen, we must keep it within the school and not tell anyone: the CPU [Child Protection Unit], the board of education. It should be between himself, [the deputy head of school],and us only. My mother said no" -- MC, 15 years old.
Some schools try to respond to the problem of the violence, but more than often school officials conceal that it happened, or delay to act on it. Since this happens many victims are repetitively being harassed or raped/molested. The provincial departments of education and health don't really give the support the victims deserve so organizations from out of country have to come in and help out the victims and try to get them help.
"Scared at School." Human Rights Watch. N.p., 2001. Web. 14 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/safrica/>.
3 comments:
Very important work you are doing here in educating the rest of us about the plight of girls in various areas of Africa. The quotations are shocking and heartbreaking; I didn't realize how prevalent these problems are outside of war-torn places such as the DRC.
You did a great job shedding light on such an important topic. I did not have any previous knowledge on this area before reading this blog. The quotes are heartbreaking…I can’t believe the higher authority of those schools didn’t take action to help the girls in trouble.
It seems that for whatever reason, in Africa, not as much importance is placed around female education as male education. This sexism, on its own, discourages women to get the equality in education they deserve, but the issue you blogged about (sexual violence against women) makes it extremely difficult for women to even want to receive this education…
Something to perhaps check out: work that Oprah Winfrey did to help with women’s education in Africa. She opened a private school called the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls south of Johannesburg. Thank goodness for human beings, like Oprah, who give us hope.
Overall, I liked the style of your blog; including quotations from females who dealt with the issue first hand. Through your blog, you helped these girls’ voices to be heard.
Hannah is very right- you've given voice to these girls and this issue. That is so important.
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