"The greatest joy in my life is when we obtain justice for survivors" - Liberia's one-stop centres are helping women and girls to heal

MONROVIA, Liberia - Between 2019 and 2023, Spotlight Initiative's Africa Regional Programme assisted more than 225,500 Liberian women and children to access services. This includes health, justice and protection, as well as psychosocial and economic support.

One-stop centres play a critical role in making access to services easier for survivors of violence by providing comprehensive care in one location.

A social worker and survivor share their experience of Redemption Hospital's one-stop centre below. 

JERRIDIN A. DONGBO
Head of one-stop centre, Redemption Hospital

One-stop centres are facilities designed to provide a comprehensive range of services and support to women who have experienced sexual and gender-based violence. Women [who come here] report to the police, then undergo a health examination, a psychosocial assessment, protection against STIs, legal aid and then prosecution [of perpetrators]. Patients come through triage. We have a counselling room and then we do an assessment in the medical room.

We normally have about five cases a day. Rape makes up most of these. In 70 per cent of cases, rape is carried out by a relative. We have a wide range of victims; We have dealt with cases of sexual assault on babies as young as a month and a half old. But on average, that usual range is from 11 to 17 years old.

Here, we take a survivor's medical history, recording it in the medical report book. This will form the report that will be used as evidence in court. It is important to collect the proper documentation. We first take the biographical details and then we collect the history. The survivor tells you and you write it down in your own words. They can point to pictograms to show an example of what happened, to make the process less traumatic. When we have recorded this word-for-word, we hand the record over to the police. We have police here. I'm a social worker, employed here since 2011.

The greatest joy in my life is when my cases reach court and we obtain justice for the survivors who have come here. There are a lot of challenges.

A lot of the time, we have no electricity, meaning that we cannot power fans, making it unbearably hot for  survivors and staff working to support them. We only have power for about one week a month.

Spotlight Initiative renovated our department, bringing in medical and non-medical supplies. They repainted the buildings, fixed the sewage lines and repaired the burst septic tanks. As a result, we have working toilets. They also provided refresher training for all staff, whether psychosocial, medical or police.

The most valuable things I learned from Spotlight Initiative were the importance of creating a comfortable, generous and kind environment to encourage survivors to talk freely and with confidence. I learned how to befriend survivors. I think there is now growing trust in the process from survivors. As awareness in the community grows, we have seen reporting of rape growing. Survivors know that everything is very confidential here.

"I can't describe how I felt. When I got home, I went to my room and cried and cried." - Grace*, 17, rape survivor

GRACE*, 17

I have come to the one-stop centre because I was raped by the leader of our gospel music band, someone I thought I trusted. He messaged me to come for a rehearsal after school at this church. There wasn't anyone else at the church. He told me the rest of the band had gone to his house, so I followed him there.

We went over the lyrics of various songs. After about three hours, I told him I had to go home, I was tired. He refused and told me, "If you don't sing, you will see another side of me." I picked up my bag and put it over my shoulder to leave but he grabbed my bag and pulled me backwards and then grabbed my hands and forced them onto his bed. I shouted for help because there had been an old lady in the house, but she had left. He then forced himself on me and raped me.

Afterwards, he tried to stop me from leaving. He had locked the door and as I tried to leave he laughed at me. Eventually, I was able to push my way past him. I can't describe how I felt. When I got home, I went to my room and cried and cried. I couldn't tell my mother for several days but when I did, she insisted that we come here.

I have reported it to the police. My attacker keeps calling, begging us to meet him so we can sort this out, but I have confidence in this place that they will help me to secure justice.

*Name has been changed to protect privacy.