Edet Effiong (real name withheld to protect her identity) is a 12 year old girl from Obot Obom community who was raped by three men in her community in Uyo LGA, Akwa Ibom State two months after she was enrolled in WEWE-LOPIN 2 program. Edet did not receive proper care after the rape incident until help came from Local Partners Initiative for Orphans and Vulnerable children in Nigeria, Region 2 (LOPIN 2) supported by United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Edet and her family are now receiving the much needed care and psycho-social support required.
Edet is the first of three siblings living with her mother and grandmother. Her father died recently, leaving the family with no means of support. Her mother works on people’s farms to earn a living. There were times when Edet had to miss school to join her mother to work on farms so they could earn more money working together, but what they made was never enough to provide a day’s meal for the family not to mention paying for school fees and other levies.
Unable to support her education, Edet dropped out of Junior Secondary School (JSS1). Edet and her mother, however, refused to give up in their search for additional income so Edet decided to join her friends to harvest snails to make some more money from the sales of the snails. Unfortunately for Edet, what she thought would provide financial support for her family, left her even more devastated and alone. The first day she went to harvest snails while returning from the swamp, three men apprehended her, used her cloth to gag her mouth and forcefully took her to the community primary school, about 200 meters from her house where they raped her one after the other.
The experience was unbearable for Edet and she kept crying until some community vigilantes heard and came to her rescue. They arrested the three perpetrators and reported the incident to LOPIN 2 trained community volunteer assigned to her household who reported the incident to WEWE-LOPIN 2 Uyo office. A WEWE-LOPIN 2 staff counselled and escorted Edet to a facility where she was examined for sexually transmitted diseases (STD). Although one of the perpetuator is reported to be HIV+, Edet was confirmed HIV negative after three months Post –Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) and she also tested negative for pregnancy. Edet however tested positive for some sexually transmitted infections and was treated. Through the Community Improvement Teams established by WEWE-LOPIN 2, the three culprits have been arrested by the Police and are currently awaiting prosecution.
The comprehensive psychosocial support provided to Edet and her family by WEWE-LOPIN 2 is helping her recover remarkably. Edet beaming with smiles says. “My dark days are over, I felt alone in this world when those men did such wicked act to me but now the gloomy scaring days and nights are over and I can look forward for a bright future thanks to USAID and WEWE-LOPIN 2 Project for been there for me.”
