Update
I haven't been able to stop thinking about that little girl for the last 36 hours. I was torn about how to handle it; child abuse cases are extremely delicate and you have to proceed with caution, lest you put the child or even yourself in danger.
I started out discreetly. Yesterday I sent the driver to make some enquiries in the area. He came back to me about 11 am, having spoken to the family. They told him that it was a baby I had heard, a 7 month-old who was colicky and wouldn't stop crying. I thanked the driver for his help, but of course I knew that was BS.
I needed a better plan, and fortunately one came to me. I was at the launching ceremony of a polio vaccination campaign, squeezing drops into the puckered mouth of a two-week old infant, when it hit me. The vaccination campaign requires teams to go door-to-door, visiting every house in Bossangoa. So I sent our health officer, a medical doctor, "under cover" with one of the teams, allowing him to gain entry into the house without alerting them to his true purpose. He had all the children gathered up, and he vaccinated them -- but there was no 12 year-old girl. He asked if there were any other children in the house and was told that there was a young girl, but that she wasn't around at that moment. But she was around, hidden in the bedroom. The doctor could see her peeking around the door.
That was enough for me. I called the Department of Social Affairs, and the doctor and I accompanied them to interview the family. It took 20 minutes of lying and evasion, but eventually we found what we expected to: a young teenaged girl (aged 14) covered in welts, cuts and bruises. She had been whipped by her brother-in-law, the head of household. It wasn't the first time.
She'll be taken to the hospital first thing tomorrow morning; our staff doctor will oversee the examination personally. The case has already been brought to the local magistrate.
This is the best result we could have hoped for, so I expected to feel some sense of accomplishment. But I don't. Instead I feel worry, knowing as I do that bringing a case against the brother does not guarantee that the beatings will stop; in fact it may provoke the opposite reaction. We will have to keep a close eye. But at least that little girl knows we're watching over her -- and so does her brother-in-law.
posted by E @ 12:38 PM
10 Comments:
You are quite simply my hero.
I'm also crying now...hope you're happy. When do we get a writing-related post, something you're working on that's fun and comedic, like a great big belly rub of happiness? I'm a writer of escapist fiction, I have NEEDS. ;)
-Jaleigh
Dammit, why do I keep making people cry? I write humour, for god's sake!
Usually, at least. The truth is I don't have much writing news, Jaleigh. My deal fell through (I'm over it) and I'm sitting with a half-finished novel. I'll get back to it eventually, but I jumped ship and started afresh on a concept my agent was enthusiastic about. I'm on Chapter Five. There's also a finished manuscript in front of my agent right now, and we'll see what he says, but it's about four years old and I'm no longer sure if it's a great as I once thought. We'll see, I suppose.
But if you want I can always send you a short I wrote a while ago starring a Vegan werewolf, a fainting vampire and a were-corgi... : )
See, that's what I'm talking about, a were-corgi, brilliant!
I'm sorry to hear about your deal. :( At least you have an agent who is excited about your work, that's a good place to be in.
-Jaleigh
I seem to recall Kant had something to say about situations like the one you describe - but since I was busy being a teenager when I read that I can't say I recall what exactly it was he had to say so I'll have to try my own words: If you hadn't done something beatings of the girl would surely have continued, possibly getting worse. When you did do something about it, they may continue and get worse - but they may also end.
Sometimes the devil we know is not to be preferred.
And while the situation in CAR is obviously quite different from the one in Sweden, it should be pointed out that my opinion is based on my own stints as a substitute teacher, as well as my dad's 25-year career as a pre-school- and school-teacher in schools where the majority of the children tend to come from cultures where corporeal punishment is a lot more common than in present-day Sweden.
Jesper,
My fear is not so much that I didn't do the right thing -- I don't really have any doubt about that. It's just that it was almost certainly not enough.
Jaleigh,
It worked out for the best, I'm pretty sure, both for the longer term and perhaps even for the novel in question.
ps -- Jesper, are you from Gotland?
Not from Gotland, no. I'm from the proud province of Västergötland(Westro Gothia) at the other side of the country (which, judging by the way people in Stockholm talk about it is the same distance from the east coast as the US east and west coasts...)
Ah. I ask because I have a friend from Gotland, and the name of your city looks similar, at least to a non-Swedish speaker. I must say you Swedes do enjoy your variations on a theme, don't you?
oops -- sorry, your province, not your city.
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