Torture of 3-year-old girl: Challenging Heights calls for immediate arrest, prosecution

Challenging Heights, a human rights organisation, has condemned the gruesome torture of a three-year-old girl by her stepmother at Winneba in the Central Region of Ghana. 

The organisation is also calling for the immediate arrest and prosecution of the perpetrator of “this shocking act.” 

Act of abuse

The perpetrator, only known as Akaina, a resident of Winneba, reportedly carried out the act of pouring a pale-hot water, at boiling point, directly into her step-daughter’s private part, accusing her of bedwetting.

“This shocking act has left the girl currently fighting for her life at the Trauma and Specialist Hospital, Winneba.

“Challenging Heights, through its Mother and Child Recovery Centre, has since taken an interest in the matter and has visited the child and her mother at the hospital and is working on supporting the recovery of the child and the mother,” a statement signed and issued by the Programmes Director, Challenging Heights, Enock Dery Pufaa, said. 

Activities of Challenging Heights

It said Challenging Heights expressed concern over the rising abuse of children in the country, and urge the government to resource state institutions such as 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 ensure the rights and welfare of children are adequately protected.

Challenging Heights, among other programmes, currently runs two major child and women rights centres; a Child Trafficking Victims Recovery Centre (which rehabilitates victims of child trafficking/forced labour) and a Mother and Child Recovery Centre (which provides safe house, protection and recovery for women and their children who have suffered various forms of abuse, including women victims of trafficking, domestic violence, forced and child marriage, rape and women victims of gender and sexual based violence).