Melia phoned us in the Children’s Centre, distraught and asking for help, as her ex-husband had taken their eight year old daughter, Milagros, a few months previously, and any attempt she made through the police and the local DEMUNA (Municipal Child protection Office) to recover her child ended in frustration.
She approached us in the St Bernadette’s Children’s Centre here in Lima, Peru, as a last resort and related her story. The relationship with her husband had been initially very caring and loving, but for some reason, on the birth of their daughter, he became very violent towards Melia. The violence, punches, insults and humiliations etc, all happened in front of their daughter for a number of years, the motive being that he had been mistreated as a child. Whenever there was a problem, he would take the daughter away for a time and would only agree to bring her back when Melia revoked the complaint she had made to the police for family violence. This went on for years.
One day his mother told her that as a young man he had received psychiatric treatment for the violence he couldn’t control and it became a condition for their continued relationship that he would resume this treatment. But soon, the violence would start all over again. It came to the stage last year that he took Milagros away for good and no matter what Melia tried nobody took any notice. “I would surreptitiously go to visit my daughter in her grandma’s house where Rolando had taken her, but in fear of him catching me”, she said. “Milagros would also be looking out the window in case he came telling me that I shouldn’t visit because her father would beat me again. I would go to the school where Milagros was studying just to see her, but my husband would arrive threatening to kill me, to shoot me and at times waving a gun at me. I was petrified, but I wanted my daughter back. He would punch and kick me in front of the other parents and the Directora of the school, but nobody interfered. The Directora (School Principal) of the school wouldn’t allow me to see Milagros because my husband had told her not to let me in. Once in the school office, with the Directora present, he again started punching and threatening me”.
“After one of these episodes at the school I was walking back along the road crying when I met a young man who approached me on seeing my distress. I told him my story and he gave me the address of a place where I could go to for help. But it was several months after that when I eventually called the St Bernadette’s Children’s Centre which also has a “Child Defence Desk” connected with the local DEMUNA office. On being invited to the Centre I met Ruth and Marcela who listened to my story”. It transpired that the young man, Miguel, who gave Melia the address of the Centre, was an ex-Columban seminarian, whose wife, Esperanza, had been an English teacher in the Centre some years previously.
Ruth and Marcela decided to present an official complaint to the Department of Justice which eventually sent them to the DEMUNA office in the area where Melia lived. Having presented a complaint against Rolando, they returned to find out why, after so long, nothing was being done, and there they discovered in the documentation that the husband was listed as the ex-director of the DEMUNA in that area, and those in charge now didn’t want to move against him. This is when Ruth and Marcela decided to go to ALEGRA (Free Legal Assistance) where they talked with a Dr Peláez, a lawyer who took up the case. At the same time they went to a Television Channel whose Sunday programme called Nunca Mas (Never Again), highlights abuses like that of Mella. With their lawyer, they also presented a complaint to the Family Court. 
The program Nunca Mas arranged that Melia would go to the school again in an attempt to meet her daughter, Milagros, but this time with hidden cameras to tape anything that might occur. The husband did arrive and once again was very abusive, verbally and physically. The encounter was filmed so it could be presented on the following Sunday night programme. They also interviewed the Directora of the school as to why she didn’t take action against the abuse that was being perpetrated outside and inside her school. It turned out, to our astonishment, that she was a psychologist who had also worked in the Children’s Centre many years before, and who was the person who had the initial idea of opening up a home for children who had been sexually abused. This now exists as part of the St Bernadette’s programme for the protection of children, and the prevention of sexual abuse. She apologized publicly on television for her inertia. Unfortunately this is a common trait when it comes to trying to present a complaint, and move it through the local authorities.
Because of the television programme, the complaint was acted upon almost immediately with the Family Court awarding Melia guardianship of her daughter. Nothing more happened to Rolando other than losing custody of his daughter. Melia still lives in fear of reprisals from her ex-husband, but at least now she has her daughter with her. There were many players involved in bringing this situation to a happy end.
Columban Fr Tony Coney founded the St Bernadette’s Children’s Centre in Lima, Peru. He has served in Peru since 1996.
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LISTEN TO: The fight against domestic violence (Duration: 6:28mins. MP3, 2.9MB) |