A three-year-old girl is battling for her life at the Trauma and Specialist Hospital in Winneba after her stepmother allegedly poured hot water on her private parts as punishment for bedwetting.
The victim’s mother said the child had been taken from Swedru to Winneba by her father to spend the vacation with him. According to her, she only discovered the assault when she went to pick up her daughter after her father delayed returning her to school.
“After picking her, I realised she couldn’t walk properly. When I examined her, I saw the injuries. She told me her stepmother poured hot water on her for wetting her bed,” she recounted.
Doctors at the Trauma and Specialist Hospital have confirmed that the burns are severe and will require complex medical procedures.
Child rights NGO Challenging Heights has stepped in to support the family with medical expenses. Its Mother and Child Rescue Unit has also called for the immediate arrest and prosecution of the stepmother, identified only as Akaima, a Liberian national.
Programmes Manager, Enock Dery Paafu, told Citi News:
“We are expecting DOVVSU to arrest the perpetrator and even the father, who supervised this act, with immediate effect.”
In a press release, Challenging Heights urged the government to strengthen key child protection institutions, including the Department of Social Welfare (DSW), the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU), and the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) of the Ghana Police Service, to safeguard children’s rights and welfare.
source: citinewsroom.com
