Saved from jaws of a heartless uncle: A sad tale of Alefa

Her life was completely traumatized. Her innocent soul was bruised with scars that speak volumes of a horrible story of her endangered life, then.

She had had enough share of misery. She was simply admonished and left to helplessly languish. She answers to the name Alefa John (not her real name in order to conceal her identity).

The genesis of her predicament was the death of her biological mother in 2007.She was very young then.

As if that was not enough, his father completely dumped her and bolted to South Africa to start a new lease of life.

“My parents looked after me very well and provided me with any basic need that necessitates the welfare of any child. Things, however, started making a U-turn when I was told that I had to live with my other uncle in here Mzimba, who is my late mother’s direct brother and from the same womb,” Alefa begins to narrates her ordeal.

“At first I was excited as I envisaged a relatively comfortable life in absence of my biological parents. I had that first thought of living with another close relation and this brought some excitement and comfort as I was assured of social security knowing that he was my late mother’s brother,” explained Alefa.

Little did Alefa know that being under custody of her uncle, she was simply jumping from a flying pan to the raging inferno.

A man who was expected to protect her welfare and also jealously guard her life from any possible danger, turned out to be an assailant himself, to the chagrin and shock of Alefa, now 18 years old.

Her uncle, had hatched an ill-conceived idea. He twice confronted the little girl to have sex with her in exchange for continued payment of school fees. But the little girl resisted with an emphatic No! in both accounts.

At that time, she had just finished her form two studies and was set to drift into form 3.

Tellingly, her inflexibility and refusal to give in to the demands by her uncle spelled even more doom as the uncle had no more incentive to continue paying her school fees.

“I couldn’t believe it. I was numb for some minutes. I asked myself that how could my own uncle whom I had looked up to, make such a demand from me, her sister’s daughter. I felt helpless,” said Alefa while tears trickling down her cheeks.

While she was on the verge of giving up, Alefa requested the uncle to assist her start a small business to cater for her school fees, of which she, again, hit a snag, until the following day when a temporary sigh of relief was bestowed upon her.

The uncle paid school fees for only one term while in form three. Alefa got back to her studies. But as fate would have it, little did she know that the uncle was working on plan B.

On this fateful day, Alefa was coming from school and the uncle-who owns a restaurant at Mzimba Boma- forcefully summoned her and told her to proceed home to prepare him hot water for bathing. Alefa obliged. A few minutes after, when she got home and did what she was instructed, the ‘marauding’ uncle followed her. At that time, the wife to the uncle was not at home.

“He told me to go to his bedroom and get him a bathing towel which I didn’t find. He then told me to get mine for him to use, and when I got into my room, he followed and locked the door. He told me point-blank that he wanted to sleep with me. We struggled for some minutes but I managed to overpower him and fled to seek refugee outside the house,” explained Alefa with tears again snaking down the cheeks.

All such ordeals where unfolding towards the end of the year 2018.

Fed up, the estranged little girl decided to spill the beans to the uncle’s wife.But as calamity strikes, it never rained but poured for the little girl as the wife did not buy in her version of the story, but instead accused her of flirting with her husband as a deliberate ploy to destroy her marriage. Soon she was to pay the price for this spurious and hypothetical wrongdoing.

She was chased away from the house. Poor Alefa!

At this juncture, life had no meaning. She could only derive comfort from weeping uncontrollably. Life had finally shown her its true callous picture. She did not know where to go and what to do. It was at this point that through her friend, Alefa met a Social worker at the District Social Welfare Office, who in turn linked her to Spotlight Initiative District Team.

By this time, a well-wisher had already offered to pay her fees and took Alefa to her house. And that is where she is staying to date.

The Spotlight Initiative is a partnership between Malawi government, European Union (EU), United Nations (UN), and the Civil Society.

It focuses on eliminating violence against women and girls, including sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and harmful practices.

The Initiative supports targeted large-scale investments aimed at achieving significant impact in the lives of women and girls in six districts. In addition to enabling a holistic approach to end violence against women and girls, the Initiative promotes Agenda 2030’s guiding principle of ‘leaving no one behind’ and builds on the momentum of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) efforts, especially Goal 5 on gender equality.

The initiative, started with ‘quick win’ activities on the two piloting districts of Ntchisi and Mzimba at the end of the year 2018, before drifting into a full swing in other districts of Nsanje, Machinga, Dowa and Nkhatabay in 2019.

 “I am so grateful to the Social Worker and the Spotlight Initiative District Team as they offered psycho-social support to me. I am stronger now and am following the counselling that they gave me. I am happy I am back in school. A well-wisher is paying for my school fees and I am happily staying with the well-wisher’s family too,” said Alefa, apparently with his countenance brightened with an amiable smile, this time around.

He proudly envisions to become an electrical engineer, one day, and she vows never to give up on this ambitious expedition.

However, with the help of the well-wisher and friends, Alefa reported the wickedness inflicted by her uncle to Mzimba Police, which eventually arrested the devious uncle.

After a week, he was released from police after promising that he would stop his sexual demands on his own niece. Till to day, she lives in a completely disconnected world with the uncle.

UN Resident Coordinator, Ms. Maria Jose Torres explains that violence against women and girls is one of the most widespread and devastating human rights violations globally.

With the Spotlight Initiative, Torres has a strong conviction that Malawi can intensify efforts to eliminate violence and improve the wellbeing of women and girls, which she says will also improve the living conditions of families and communities.

“The programme is built around six inter-connected and mutually-reinforcing pillars focusing on laws and policies, institutions, prevention and social norms, services, data, and women’s rights movement – driving innovation and transformative programming to end violence,” says Torres.

But to her, a well-coordinated and multi-sectoral approach is key to ending violence against women and girls, stressing that unless there is a strong alliance with government, civil society, local communities and development partners, the vice will continue to haunt innocent girls and women.

She adds: “Strengthening this alliance is the centerpiece of the Spotlight Initiative so we can materialize the elimination of violence against women and girls in Malawi. The Spotlight Initiative is supported by the EU and the UN and it is implemented in 8 countries in Africa.”

Mzimba district Social Welfare Assistant Cecilia Mhone laments that the district has so many cases of child marriage as fathers are fond of leaving their wives for greener pasture in neighboring countries, leaving children and wives at the mercy of evil mind.

“Because of this, girls like (Alefa) are forced to get married to older men and end up being abused, impregnated and left to fend for themselves when the men move on to marry another wife,” she says.