A co-founder of On This Side, Amtu Akumfi-Ameyaw, has urged survivors of sexual abuse to reject self-blame, stressing that responsibility for abuse rests with the perpetrators and not the victims.
She said adults had a duty to protect children and ensure their safety and that survivors needed constant reassurance that they were not to blame for what had happened to them.
“We have to keep reminding survivors that it is never their fault. It is never your fault,” she said on Joy News’ PM Express on Tuesday, October 20.
“If you’re a survivor listening to me today, if you have a child that’s a survivor, if you have happened to become a parent yourself and you were a survivor when you were a lot younger, this is a reminder that it is never your fault.”
Her comments come amid national concern over allegations of sexual abuse involving female students at Obuasi Senior High Technical School (SHTS), where headmaster Zakaria Abdulai has been interdicted by the Ghana Education Service (GES) and arrested by the police as investigations continue.
The case has attracted widespread attention following reports by JoyNews investigative correspondent Manasseh Azure Awuni.
Ms Akumfi-Ameyaw said adults entrusted with the care of children must be held to their responsibility to protect them from harm.
“Adults are supposed to be responsible. Adults are supposed to protect you and make sure that you are safe. So it is never your fault that they abused you,” she said.
Abuse cuts across school levels
Ms Akumfi-Ameyaw said cases of sexual abuse were not confined to senior high schools, citing experiences involving children at primary and junior high school levels.
She recounted the experience of a colleague who had been abused in a classroom at the age of eight, almost nine, and who was now in tertiary education.
She also referred to a separate case involving a 12-year-old girl approaching her 13th birthday, in which her organisation had helped secure a conviction. In that case, she said, the perpetrator was someone close to the child’s family.
Ms Akumfi-Ameyaw said her organisation had also received cases involving alleged abuse by teachers, underscoring the need for children to be protected in schools and other settings where adults exercise authority over them.
Her examples highlighted the different circumstances in which abuse can occur and the importance of taking disclosures seriously, regardless of a child’s age or relationship to the alleged perpetrator.
Calls for stronger action
The advocate also criticised what she described as failures to adequately protect students, saying those working to expose abuse had to be prepared to speak out despite resistance.
“I know that I keep saying that. I know that abusers are not happy with me this week, but that’s not why we do the work. We do the work because we need to see results,” she said.
She added: “And I would repeat that good girls don’t get the jobs done. Only the people that are ready to take the risk and are ready to put their voices out there.”