Help a victim of sexual violence

CONTENT WARNING: mention of sexual violence

I would like to call on you here to donate to a noble cause. A few months ago, Zahraddeen Lawan, a BBC Hausa reporter, reported a very touching story about a teenage girl in northern Nigeria (Kano) who was gang-raped in her neighborhood. Her mother, out of rare bravery, took the rapists to court. After the case dragged on for over 4 years, she finally received a meager sum of N20,000 (about 35 Euros!) from each rapist as "compensation" for the rape, a sum of 100,000 (175 Euros!) from the 5 rapists. However, her stepbrothers, “to keep the money safe” took it from her mother and said they would use it for the victim if she finds someone to marry her. As if what the poor girl went through was not enough, the neighborhood turned against her, people bullied, harassed, and talked behind her back. At the time of the BBC interview, the girl was completely depressed and desperately needed help. Through Zahraddeen Lawan, I got in touch with the girl and decided to start a fundraising campaign for her. As the months passed, I kept seeing stories of even younger girls, 6, 7, 8, being raped and killed and became more and more angry and confused. Finally, I gathered some courage and want to do at least something small to ease the pain of one victim.


 My plan is, when some money is raised, I will not hand the money to any of her family members but keep it with me as a trust. I will then ask the girl what she wants to do. If she wants to go back to school, the money will be used to fund her secondary education. If she wants to learn a skill, like tailoring, we will use the money for her training and later buy two sewing machines and rent a store for her, with some start-up capital. I will then write a short report here again to update the donors. This form of support (financial) is very important. Without it, she will remain trapped at home, full of shame for nothing of her fault, and with no chance of relieving her trauma.

 

 Here is the link to the story on BBC Hausa story on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CID2DzDBY8T/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link