‘Don’t use children as excuse to remain in abusive marriages’

Mrs Nyarko

Women have been advised to desist from using their children as excuses to remain in abusive marriages.

Founder of Abronoma Foundation, a women and child centered Non-Gov­ernmental Organisation (NGO), Mrs Linda Nyarko-Yeboah said staying in abusive relationships is dangerous. Women must not accept any form of violence against them in the name of marriage or with the excuse that they cannot raise children without fathers,” she stated.

For her, “Women are better off alive as single mother than losing their lives and turning their children into orphans.”

Mrs Nyarko-Yeboah who gave the advice in an interview with the Spec­tator said children who witnessed domestic violence were more likely to perpetuate the cycle in their own future relationship therefore by leaving an abusive marriage, victims could dis­rupt this harmful pattern and empower their children to grow up in healthier and more nurturing environments.

Domestic violence, she said was a profound issue that affected many Ghanaians considering the number of cases the media have reported so far since the beginning of this year alone, causing immense physical, emotional, and psychological harm.

She bemoaned the rise in cases where young women have lost their lives because of domestic violence, citing the recent killing of a 28-year -old woman, Eunice Ameh Narh who was hacked to death by her husband in Nungua, Accra for threatening to divorce him.

“This is not the only case of do­mestic violence that has led to death, there have been many other cases, including the report about a student of the Nsutam Senior High School who was allegedly murdered about two months ago by her boyfriend who is a barber.

“A cocoa farmer, Egya Atta at Wiredukrom, a farming community in the Western Region also committed the same atrocity,” she lamented.

This farmer, Mrs Nyarko-Yeboah said inflicted cut­lass wounds on the head and neck of his wife, a mother of three, which led to her death.

She said chil­dren who expe­rience domestic violence suffer long-lasting conse­quences that could influence their entire lives, adding that there was the need for victims to break the cycle by leaving abusive mar­riages to ensure their own safety and that of their children.

Touching on the consequences of domestic violence on children, the philanthropist noted that witnessing violence between their parents could lead to feelings of fear, anxiety, guilt, and helplessness, adding that such experiences could negatively influence their self-esteem and ability to form healthy relationships later in life.

Explaining, she mentioned that children who grow up in abusive households were more likely to exhibit behavioural problems like aggression, anger outbursts, social withdrawal, difficulty concentrating in school, and even engaging in delinquent be­haviour.

Mrs Nyarko-Yeboah therefore urged women to ensure they were financial­ly stable to enable them to fend for themselves and their children when

 By Raissa Sambou