Bright Minds Foundation to provide housing, financial support to defiled 13-yr-old

Bright Minds Foundation, an NGO, has moved to support a13-year-old girl allegedly defiled by a chief and a taxi driver in Ashanti Region.

The girl has been discharged from hospital after doctors successfully treated her at a hospital in Kumasi.

She is presently putting up with her mother in a hotel, with support Accra-based Bright Minds Foundation – which also paid for the medical bills for her treatment.

The teenager’s condition has improved significantly.

Doctors had observed that she “had tenderness with swells all over the vulva and vestibules. Patient also had bruises with oozing of blood from the vestibules.”

She also had difficulty walking as a result of her ordeal.

Her mother is also set to receive financial support from the NGO to start a business so she can earn a decent living and take care of her children.

Executive Director of the NGO, Victoria Bright, says the group will pursue the case in court to ensure justice for the Class Five Pupil.

Ms Bright is a former Minister of State and a legal advisor to former President John Agyekum Kufuor.

Visit

It was an emotional visit for officials of Bright Minds Foundation when they met the 13-year-old-girl.

The visit was in response to a news report on the incident by Joy News.

"I am very, very elated today. The person whose picture I saw, in the beginning, is not the same person I'm seeing. She is smiling and I'm very happy to see her today. And she's well; she's walking okay and she looks healthy and I'm just very healthy. As a mother myself, I just could not sit there and watch this child was bleeding to death and nobody cared," said Ms Bright.

Bright Minds Foundation seeks to protect the social, economic and psychological well-being of children burdened by poverty demands.

"They [girl and family] cannot go back to the village they came from. She needs to start life afresh so we are going to relocate her to one of the nearest towns where her mother feels comfortable.

“We will also ask the mother to find a trade and I will give her a working capital so that she can start really and would be able to feed her children and be able to stand on her own two feet," Ms Bright announced.

The girl’s mother, Mary Adarkwa, got emotional as she expressed appreciation to Ms Victoria Bright and her team.

Meanwhile, Ms Bright is asking the public to rally against sexual assault on children in society.