HOW SHOULD SHE DO IT?

Dear Taiwo,
My husband and I are ardent readers of your column and sincerely we have learnt a lot from reading your pages; this is why I felt you can be of help to us in this situation.
Sincerely, it is not an issue we both are directly involved in, but I especially cannot stop thinking that I can do something to help the young girl in question, more so, because I have a daughter, exactly her age. I cannot imagine my daughter going through the situation the poor girl is in.
My husband and I moved into our present neighbourhood about seven years ago. It is our own house and we have been friendly with this young girl and her mother even before we finished and moved into our own house. The area is a developing one with a few houses there then. Her family then happened to be our direct neighbours. We didn’t see much of the man; the woman’s husband, because probably he was always at work whenever we went to supervise. This woman and sometimes her little daughter became friendly with us and sometimes assist us.
By the time we moved into our new house, we had become close and friendly with them. I noticed that the woman was always moody and sad. I couldn’t ask her because I didn’t want her to think I was meddling in her private life. She had a small shop built into their fence and she usually open the shop when she returns from the office where she works as a secretary to sell provisions to people in the neighbourhood.
I stopped at the shop to pick few things for our home on that fateful day that I met her husband. He was drunk and kept raining abuses on his wife. Initially, I thought he was a drunken customer, until he started beating his chest and telling her that he remains her husband and the head of the house. I felt really bad when she started crying, though, quietly. It was then that I realised the reason for her melancholic look.
We couldn’t talk that day, but I couldn’t help but advised her to take things easy the following day when I drove past her shop. We started talking from that day. I later learnt that the little girl is her only child and the man happened to be her second husband. I also learnt that the building belongs to her and not the man. She decided to take things easy because she doesn’t want a situation where her marriage to him will crash again.
I told my husband what we spoke about when I got home, he advised me not to get too involved in her issue, because he knows my type of person. I however wished I had intervened or done something to help her, because she died two weeks after she spoke with me. She slumped and died in her shop on a fateful evening.
It was after her demise that a lot of stories came to fore. We learnt that she had been a victim of domestic violence for years and she kept quiet and suffered in silence.
The poor girl she left behind had nowhere to go than to stay with the man we all thought was her father. Of course, she also suffered the same fate from this man. Several days she would not go to school and at such a tender age, she does all the chores in the house.
Many times she would sit in front of her late mother’s shop and cry because she was hungry. Many times I have had to give her food because her supposed father would have been too drunk to look for food. As if that was not enough, I later learnt from my daughter who she confided in that her father raped her one night and he had been doing that persistently and threatened to kill her if she told anyone.
Initially, I felt it was impossible but my daughter told my husband and he asked that investigated it. Instead of asking the young girl; she is just 13, I called the attention of another neighbour to what I heard. She said it was very possible as the man does not strike her as being stable. She said she would be vigilant as their house is closer to theirs.
Two weeks after she gave me a feedback which was shocking and disheartening as well she actually heard the girl screaming and begging her stepfather not to have sex with her that particular night as she was having pains.
This really touched my heart; I had an audience with her and learnt that this had been going on few weeks after her mother’s demise and he had warned her not to tell anybody or he would kill her. I also learnt that this man is her step father and not her real father.
I was forced to ask her where her father is, but unfortunately she does not know how to locate him. I asked if she knows any of her mother’s relatives if she cannot locate her father or his people, her answer was more devastating. She said the only aunty she knows resides in the northern part of the country and she doesn’t even know where or how to contact her.
It is obvious she needs help, but how does one go about it? I learnt of her plight, I feel sad. My neighbour and I raise money for her to eat and keep her personal hygiene. We also raised money to pay her school fees so that she can go back to school, but the issue of sexual abuse as far as I am concerned is more serious.
Would we not be meddling in a family affair if we confront this girl’s step-father? Is there a way we can help her? The poor girl is even scared of opening up because of the fear of death. Please, how can I go about this?
Anonymous.