On the International Day of the Girl Child, 11 October 2022, two educational talks were organised with the girls of the Voix du Cœur Foundation to discuss the difficulties girls on the streets often face. These awareness-raising activities brought together 149 participants, including 99 girls, 30 women and 20 men.
Young girls desocialised due to gender-based violence
These discussions showed how some of the girls present had suffered from acts of violence. A 14-year-old girl, Raihanatou*, repeatedly suffered from gender-based violence, starting in primary school:
”When I was 12 years old and attending the 5th grade of primary school, I was sexually harassed by my teacher who wanted to marry me. Faced with my refusal, I was subjected to all kinds of reprisals, such as being sent to the blackboard more than five times a day during school hours, being questioned more than ten times during each lesson, and, in case of an incorrect answer, being punished physically, being humiliated in front of my classmates or being forced to go and wash the teacher’s clothes. In addition, I was punished by my parents for coming home late.”
She also experienced violence later in the context of her extracurricular activities: “A similar situation occurred when I joined the choir and the movement of JEA (African Evangelic Youth) within my church. The leader of the choir humiliated me when I refused his attempts. He scolded me or chased me out of the choir in front of others.”
These traumas have affected her life in a harmful way: “These situations caused me to drop out of school, abandon the choir and broke the ties with my family,” Raihanatou regrets.
This situation is unfortunately the fate of numerous girls and women in Central African Republic. According to the report “Gender-Based Violence Information”, 11 700 cases of gender-based violence were reported in the country in the second quarter of 2022, which equals to the number of the whole year of 2021. Moreover, the figure for 2021 was already 25% higher than in 2020…
Accompany the girls and reintegrate them into their communities
The young survivors who took part in the awareness-raising session receive psychological support from a psychosocial worker from the Fondation la Voix du Cœur. They will then be reintegrated according to their specific needs either at school or in the vocational training provided for in the framework of the project financed by the “Gender III” programme of the Bêkou Trust Fund of the European Union.
This project led by the International Rescue Committee with a consortium of international and local non-governmental organisations offers holistic care for survivors of gender-based violence in Bangui and its surroundings, as well as in the prefectures of Ouham (Bossangoa), Ouham-Péndé (Bocaranga, Koui, Ngaoundaye and Bohong) and Ouaka (Bambari). It also facilitates their reintegration into their communities, with the objective of zero toleration for gender-based violence.
To achieve this, parents’ parenting skills are strengthened. In addition, awareness is raised for community leaders, religious leaders and teacher to understand their roles in identifying and preventing gender-based violence. The issues raised during these educational talks are shared with the communities so that they can consider young girls’ concerns.
*The names of the people in this story have been changed to protect the victims of gender-based violence.