MOWAC to intervene in defilement case

The Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs (MOWAC) says it will intervene in the case of the 7-year old girl suffering a severe medical condition as a result of her defilement.

The girl, who was allegedly defiled three times by her 60-year-old grandfather, has her vagina and anus seriously battered and also tested HIV-positive.

Deputy minister for Women and Children's Affairs, J. B. Danquah-Adu, told JOY NEWS that his ministry would liaise with other agencies to support the girl.

“As a ministry, this is seriously on our doorstep and as a coordinating or central management ministry, we will take it up seriously with the Ministry of Health (MOH) Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the Social Welfare Department.

I can promise you we will take action on that. There is no doubt the alleged perpetrator whether he is the grandfather must be brought to book and quickly have the case tried.

If the Judicial Secretary is in town, I will personally drive over to his office and take it up to ensure that all the necessary help is given, even to have the case transferred to Accra for a speedy trial,” he said.

Meanwhile, some members of the public have responded positively to an appeal to raise funds to pay the defiled victim's medical bills.

But more needs to be done and JOY FM is still receiving donations at its front-desk.

The medical officer who first treated the girl at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr. William Apeadu-Mensah, says help needs to come quickly because of the little girl's HIV status.

He says surgery will help to repair the girl's damaged anal tract.

“ The original problem we saw was a communication between the rectum and the vagina. This communication must close to allow stools to come freely down the rectum and up the anus without coming through the vagina.

What we did initially was to bring part of the large intestines out to the skin so that stools that will normally pass through the rectum will come out on the skin and avoid the communication between the rectum and the vagina.

Sometimes people who have had an injury of that sort may heal on their own. If that does not happen we will need to have to do a surgery to repair the communication between the vagina and the rectum to separate the two passages,” he said.

JOY FM has launched an appeal for the little girl. Call 233-21-7011999 or send a note to [email protected] and we would get back to you.

You can donate to a Needy Fund set at SG-SSB Annex B Branch, Accra with account number 0052010027306.