Survivor’s defiler lives metres away from her

The man who defiled Jessie 12 years ago lives only metres away from her, but both are unaware.

Their paths initially crossed when he, identified as Niga then, abducted and locked her in his house during the day and turned her into his wife at night.

He was arrested and convicted after Eye of the Child and the police rescued little Jessie who had genital warts and discharged a foul smell from her private parts. She later tested HIV positive.

Now the two are living in the same neighbourhood at Kameza, Traditional Authority Machinjiri, a densely populated urban-rural location in Blantyre.

Jessie is oblivious of her ordeal as she has no recollection of this past experience.

But events leading up to her coming to live in this neighbourhood from her home village in Nsanje two months ago are clear indications that she never received appropriate help to enlighten her about sexual exploitation, how to protect herself or given any survival tools such as education or means to earn an income.

Twelve years later, Jessie, 21, lays on a mat unable to sit up straight, hold her two months old baby girl or wear any clothes.

A gaping would hidden by a chitenje is not a sight for the faint-hearted, a reminiscent of four operations she underwent in March.

She doesn’t know who the father of the baby is as she claims to have been seeing two men at a time.

Her aunt Martha Lesteni said after the cesarean section that delivered baby Charity, a hysterectomy—removal of her uterus— was ordered followed by a third and fourth to clean her stomach.

“A stench emanated from the womb and it had to be removed four days after the birth. Thereafter, her stomach also produced an ordour requiring cleaning. She is yet to be stitched because the wound was too big,” she said.

Lesteni said they are required to visit South Lunzu Health Centre in Machinijiri twice a week for dressing, but the K4 000 for a motorcycle is out of their reach.

Jessie’s companion since the birth has been the mat situated at the tiny living room which has two two stools, a few chairs and a coffee table for furniture in an overcrowded mud house at Kameza.

Lesteni, her husband and their four children are accommodating Jessie, her mother and sister barely big enough to house the initial occupants.

Meanwhile, Charity wails and shivers as Jessie’s mother Beatrice Hale dresses her in chitenje pieces improvised for nappies.

She is surviving on thobwa (sweet beer) because the mother cannot breast feed.

The baby formula they received while in hospital from Eye of the Child has run out and is not on the family’s list of groceries because even fending for nine mouths is implausible.

According to Lesteni, Niga was released about four years ago and married last year.

“I attended his wedding and they hired my husband’s music equipment. They have a daughter,” said Lesteni.

Hale said Jessie never went back to school after the dissolution of her marriage and was taken to Mpemba Reformatory Centre.

Later, she returned to Nsanje where she has been living until the birth of her baby whose possible fathers are guards.

Ministry of Gender child development officer Kondwani Mhone agrees that the focus tends to be on perpetrators with little care of support for survivors.

However, he said the launch of a strategy on ending child marriages in 2018 gives them more support.

He said the protocol offers survivors educational, physiological and psycho-social support, but financial challenges hinder their progress.

He said each district receives an average of K250 000 each for the social welfare and gender offices for implementation and follow-up of the required programmes.

“We advocate for resources because the amounts are barely enough. We cannot reach every girl that needs our help, but interventions have been boosted,” he said.

Meanwhile, Jessie is asking for help for her recovery, fend for her child and start a business that will also support her mother and five siblings.