A three-year-old girl is fighting for her life at the Trauma and Specialist Hospital in Winneba after her stepmother allegedly poured hot water on her private parts.
According to the child’s mother, the girl had been taken from Swedru to Winneba by her father to spend the vacation with him. She claims the stepmother, identified only as Akaima, a Liberian national, inflicted the injuries as punishment after the child urinated in bed.
The mother told Citi News she only discovered the assault when she went to Winneba to pick up her daughter after the father delayed returning her to school in Swedru.
“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 say the burns are severe and will require complex medical procedures.
The 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.
Programmes Manager, Enock Dery Pufaa, 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 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 ensure adequate protection for children’s rights and welfare.
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