VAWG around the globe – ‘I was kidnapped and forced into sex slavery’

When Delphine Uwamahoro was growing up in a rural village in Rwanda, ‘women didn’t have a voice at all’, she says.

However, life took an extraordinary turn when, aged 16, an anonymous donor from Germany sponsored her education. It meant Delphine was able to move to her country’s capital, Kigali, to study at the University of Rwanda, then onto Uganda and finally Germany, where she qualified as a radiology technologist at 22.

However, when she returned home four years later, Delphine found that most of the girls she’d played with at school hadn’t been as lucky as her. Some had been forced to leave education after becoming pregnant following sexual abuse – afew as young as 12.

‘I reflected on the difference between us. And really there isn’t one, except I got an opportunity,’ Delphine says starkly.

It has been over 10 years since the World Health Organisation declared VAWG a worldwide epidemic, and this year it was reported by United Nations Women (UNW) that almost one in three women have been subjected to physical or sexual violence, at least once in their life.

Mary Robinson, champion of VAWG charity The Circle said recently: ‘Violence against women is a global emergency. Across every continent, in every society, gender-based violence remains a tragic and persistent reality.’

Studies show that women in countries classified as ‘lowest-income, conflict-affected and climate-vulnerable settings’ are disproportionately affected. 

In the UN-classified Least Developed Countries (LDCs), which includes Rwanda, an estimated 18% of women have experienced intimate partner violence across the past 12 months, 7% higher than the global average.

Over 30% of Rwanda lives in poverty, and in 2020, almost 6% of 20-24 year-old womenreported that they had been married before their 18th birthday.

Shaping the future

Delphine, now 39, remembers that when she was younger, jobs for women were unpaid, ‘working 24 hours a day but still appearing like we had done nothing’.

‘When I came back after my studies, I found my childhood peers in really difficult situations. They couldn’t afford basic needs,’ she explains.

‘They would knock on my door asking for a dollar for health insurance or food. Giving them one dollar now and again was not a solution. We need long-term solutions.’

So, in 2019, Delphine bought sewing machines with her savings and made a space for women to tailor – one of the only acceptable professions for women in her town – and Our Sisters’ Opportunity (OSO) quickly took off. ‘The women were making between £75 and £200 a month, the salary of a doctor in our village,’ remembersDelphine.

However, the founder quickly realised earning a wage didn’t mean liberation for all women, as their husbands would often decide how the money was spent.

To combat it, Delphine started another programme, and brought a UK charity calle The Circle as a partner, focusing on creating a space where conversations can be had between women, girls and decision-makers on how to combat gender-based violence. 

‘We help women and girls understand power within, power around, power over. That amplified everything,’ she says.

‘Now girls realise when someone is exercising power over them they can sense it, intervene, run or call the police. They can seek support.’

Forced into sex slavery and shunned at home

Kenya is another country where violence against women and girls is prevalent.

In 2022, Kenya’s Bureau of National Statistics showed that 45% of women between 15 and 49 have experienced physical violence in their lifetime, with the majority of perpetrators being their husbands or intimate partners.

Alice Atieno was born into the Awer community, an indigenous ethnic group living near the Somali border in Lamu County, coastal Kenya.

They have been a frequent target of attacks, particularly against women and girls, by the terrorist group al-Shabaab, who ‘come into the country, take our women, and use them sexually, and force them into labour.’

Alice, 35, is a survivor of this violence. She was kidnapped and trafficked to Somalia in 2014 at the age of 24, and was held at a camp for around nine months, forced into sex slavery and hard labour.

‘Some [women] die there. You can be one woman, but you can service 10 men sexually,’ she explains. ‘When you’re found trying to sneak out, that probably would be the end of you. I’m one of those lucky ladies who managed to escape.’

However, when Alice returned home, she was shut out from her community due to the cultural stigma around women and girls who have experienced violence.

Surviving Boko Haram

It was the same for 15-year-old Simona*, who was captured in Nigeria by militant group Boko Haram, and sexually tortured for three years. After escaping with her two children, who were born from rape, she found her way home.

‘People would run away if we reached the water pump, or chase us,’ says Simona. ‘They would tell people “don’t work with these women, don’t give them a job” or “don’t allow your children to play with their children”.’

In 2019, the Global Survivors Fund was established to support victims of conflict-related sexual violence, and the charity has since provided Simona with the tools she needed to rebuild her life outside of this isolation. 

Reintegrating survivors

Alice set up Awer Empowerment with support from The Circle in 2018, in a bid to support trafficked women. She knew survivors were less likely to be able to get a stable income, and that poverty means a higher chance of further abuse.

‘We bring the survivors back, and do post-trauma counselling,’ explains Alice. ‘When you are displaced, you can’t trace your background, and you have to find somebody to hold your hand so that you can start over again.’

Alice co-founded Awer with fellow survivor, 37-year-old Evelyn. She remembers that one woman the pair worked with ‘was forced to marry an older, abusive man who would rape and beat her’.

‘We did not tell the lady to walk out of the marriage, but we empowered her so that she could be self-dependent,’ explains Alice. ‘The moment she realised that she could do it on her own, she left, and now she’s very peaceful.’

Alice also works with government to prevent the same violence from happening in the future. 

‘We involve the opinion leaders, we involve other stakeholders,’ Alice says, adding that more ‘eyes are now open’ to what women can face in Kenya, and how to combat it.

‘No one would listen to me’

Chamathi* was born into poverty in Sri Lanka. She has spent most of her working life giving her wages to her unemployed, violent husband.

‘He was spending all the money on alcohol,’ she remembers. ‘He was beating me with steel bars, once while I was feeding our baby because I had spoken to friends about the issue.’

One of the garment factories Chamathi worked at, saw employees work extremely long hours. ‘We do not even have a break to go to the washroom,’ she explains. ‘I don’t have time to breathe as we have to complete 100 targets in an hour.’

While experiencing exploitation at work, the abuse worsened at home. ‘I had to get up early in the morning, do all of the household things, get the children to nursery. Then, I go to work, come back and get beaten by my husband at night.

‘Because of fear, I did not report,’says Chimathi. ‘I have never been for treatment, for the wounds and the blood. Being a woman, if we go to make a complaint with the police, a doctor or a nurse, they do not listen to us.’

Even when she and her sister did tell the police about the violence, she was told to stay with him as hs is the father of her children.

It meant that Chimathi found herself trapped living in a boarding house – a type of accommodation rented as part of her factory job – with her two sons, aged 14 and two, and her husband.

A global support network

Eventually,Chimathi sought support of the Sri Lanka Women’s Centre, which is supported by The Circle.

She stayed in their safe house for three weeks and with the support of staff, she reported the domestic violence to the police again – but they accepted a bribe from her husband to ignore the case.

Because of this, Chimathi is still with her husband and enduring his violence. But that doesn’t mean she has given up.

‘Almost all women have faced some violence. Not only the domestic but on transport and in workplaces,’ she says. ‘Because of the Women’s Centre, I now know my rights, rules and laws. At the factory, I have been nominated to the worker’s council, as I have the knowledge.’

Now in her forties, Chimathi attends protests and is involved in discussions on how to improve protections for women and girls of the future.

Gayami Gomes, Project Manager at the Women’s Centre, adds: ‘We know in the fight for justice, it is always important to have feminist voices across the globe, so we – struggling together – can form a broader solidarity network across borders.’

The Circle is an NGO combating Violence Against Women and Girls which was founded by Annie Lennox in 2008. The charity provide support for women from marginalised communities experiencing economic, physical and sexual violence.

Additional reporting by Georgette Thomas and Katie Tipple.

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