Your Excellency, Dr. Tedros. I trust and hope this message finds you well among many i am sure. I write this to you as a disheartened citizen who is heartbroken by the manifestation of the latest violence committed against a 16 year old female student – Hana Lalango. As you may well be aware of the news, Hana Lalango was kidnapped, violently gang raped and cast in a deserted area of our metropolis. She passed while undergoing treatment at Zewditu Hospital. Such an atrocious crime committed in broad daylight and challenging the concept of human security in our vibrant and growing city.
A mere high school student’s safety to attend school in the Capital is now compromised amidst our country’s struggle and determination to increase female student enrolment in secondary school. Yet if the transport systems that our city avails them becomes their transport to death in such a gruesome way, then the very notion of the right to safety from harm guaranteed in our constitution becomes compromised where hooligans do what they may with girls who are building their future and that of their nation.
I trust that as a father of a daughter you can relate. I trust that as a father of a daughter in the Capital, this may hit closer to home. And therefore, Your Excellency, i implore you to champion your colleagues towards making a statement on this. To stand by Hana Lalango and her family and the millions of girls and women as well as male allies who have been shocked by this cruelty but are cynical about a sustainable way of addressing the issues of Gender Based Violence and Violence Against Women, that has found little redress.
I implore you dear sir, as do my friends, colleagues and concerned citizens who seek political will for the realization of a national plan to address the escalating levels of violence against our women and girls.
There are millions of Hana’s in everyone’s living room and I hope you join us in ensuring that Hana Lalango does not remain a 200 word count article in page 3 of a national newspaper.
Your sincerely, A concerned citizen and her friends
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Love & Light