Déborah* and her husband Djobo live in the village of Guiguiso in northern Benin. On the night of Sept. 9, 2009, while they slept, three men entered their home and assaulted the couple. Djobo was left bleeding and unconscious, and Déborah was raped. After he regained consciousness, Djobo alerted the village.

The coordinator of the USAID-supported EMPOWER project to advance women’s rights and combat gender-based violence (GBV) in Benin promptly informed the police commissioner and project facilitator in nearby Bassila. With the help of the entire population of Guiguiso, the three men were tracked down and taken into custody before sunrise.

Déborah and Djobo sought medical attention from the Bassila hospital and, with medical certificates in hand, they went to the police commissioner. After hearing the victims, and the witnesses, the commissioner presented the case to the prosecutor. Today, the three accused men await trial in jail.

That the three men were brought before the country’s legal system at all is remarkable. In Benin, more than 75 percent of women are victims of violence, and 44 percent are sexually abused. Since 2007, USAID has helped to promote greater recognition and acceptance of women’s rights in Benin, and also to get more female victims to seek help from Benin’s Social Service Centers and justice system.

The Women’s Justice and Empowerment Initiative (WJEI) is a presidential initiative to advance women’s rights and combat GBV in Africa. In Benin, USAID, working through CARE International, seeks to increase awareness of GBV and improve the capacity of care centers and shelters to address the comprehensive needs of victims through medical, psycho-social, legal, and police assistance. At the same time, the US Department of Justice focuses on strengthening the justice, forensic, and prosecuting system, by training lawyers, police officers and health care providers that deal with GBV crimes.

In Benin, the EMPOWER project conducts media and interpersonal awareness campaigns that aim at reducing GBV while calling for the application of existing anti-GBV laws. Although the evaluation of the project completed in July, 2010 found that the fight against GBV has progressed, victims face numerous problems. On the one hand, the Government of Benin lacks the resources to address and act at the level that the magnitude of the violence against women problem requires; on the other hand, the victims of GBV continue, under social pressure, to withdraw their complaints for fear of family reprisals.

“The injury we suffered as a result of this gang rape may pass with time,” Déborah said weeks after the assault, “but I dare not imagine what life would be like had we not received help from EMPOWER, starting from the hospital and the police station, to the prosecutor’s office to press charges.”

From November 2007 to September 2010, the U.S. government helped 2,782 victims file complaints with the police, of which 996 reached the Courts of First Instance. While that figure represent only 35 percent of gender violence complaints, it is more than 6.5 times higher than the results targeted. For Beninese women, it is very difficult to press charges against the men who abused them.

“Before, we would attempt to resolve cases of gender-based violence ‘amicably’ and out-of-court,” a Beninese judge said. “This happens less because of EMPOWER, which helps the victims understand and pursue their cases in the court system, and mounting pressure from the media, that acts as essential partner in the cause of justice for women.?

By Jeronime Mongbo, Care International, Benin

* Names withheld by the Courts to protect the safety of the couple.