KIRIBATI / ALCOHOLISM

Her guardian calls her Bas. Her biological parents abandoned her and she has no birth certificate but her new adoptive mother, Sana, thinks Bas is about two years old. Despite her young age, she has been through a lot.

SOUNDBITE (Ikiribati) Sana, adoptive parent:
“When I took the girl her cheeks were bruised, and she was bleeding from the corner of her eye. Her mouth was cut up, and her back, legs and neck were severely scratched.”

Sana’s husband Bara witnessed the child being beaten by people who were clearly drunk.

SOUNDBITE (Ikiribati) Bara, adoptive parent:
“This is the place where I saw Bas getting beaten up by the couple that was known as her adoptive parents. The adoptive dad said, “It’s better to kill that baby, rather than hurting her so bad. I told the adoptive mom that I will take care of the baby and bring her to my house.”

Sana and her husband called the police and took the baby to the hospital.

SOUNDBITE (Ikiribati) Sana, adoptive parent:
“The child had really bad bruises and scratches and her head was dislocated.”

Since Bas had no one to take care of her, the police told Sana to take her home, to join her family of seven children.

SOUNDBITE (Ikiribati) Sana, adoptive parent:
“My husband and I promised the police to take good care of her no hitting or spanking.”

Sana and her family have their own difficulties. After losing a house to the sea during a recent high tide, their second home was flooded, too.

They took refuge at their community house called ‘Maneaba.’ This is where they cook, sleep, play and worship. And this is where Bas has found her new home.

SOUNDBITE (Ikiribati) Sana, adoptive parent:
“The first time she came to my family her thinking was different from other normal kids. She was scared of people, and she liked to stay alone without others touching her.”

Now Bas has a family that takes good care of her and wants to raise her as their own.

SOUNDBITE (English) Baram, social worker, Ministry of Social Affairs, Kiribati:
“They want to adopt Bas. She came to us, seeking for help for legal adoption but the case is very complicated because the real mother, the biological mother, she’s very hard to trace.”
Baram, a social worker with the Ministry for Social Affairs, says the case gets even more complicated because the couple Bas lived with had no documents for her.

SOUNDBITE (English) Baram, social worker, Ministry of Social Affairs, Kiribati:
“They didn’t legally adopt the child because the biological mother sold the child to the couple for fifty cents.”

Joao Mendes is UNICEF’s Child Protection Officer in Kiribati.

SOUNDBITE (English) Joao Mendes, child Protection Officer, UNICEF, Kiribati:
“Most of the people have never been registered – parents, including their child. So that means that we cannot move forward in terms of legal adoptions.”

But UNICEF and the government of Kiribati are working together to establish routine birth registration immediately after a child is born.

But a more fundamental problem is the alcohol abuse in Kiribati.

After Bas’s case became public, the adoptive parents who had abused her fled. Not much is left at their house, except for empty bottles of home-brewed coconut toddy.

This is the kind of alcohol most people here drink. And because it is mostly done at home, the drinking is hard to control.

SOUNDBITE (English) Yun Jong Kang, head, UN office, Kiribati:
“They produce their own home brew because buying this kind of imported drink from the shops is also expensive.”

Yun Jong Kang, head of the UN office in Kiribati, says alcohol exacerbates another problem that is plaguing Kiribati – an acceptance of corporal punishment.

SOUNDBITE (English) Yun Jong Kang, head, UN office, Kiribati:
“When the men drink they beat the woman or the wife and the children so, it really leads to domestic violence.”

Even children are accustomed to being hit.

SOUNDBITE (English) Joao Mendes, child Protection Officer, UNICEF, Kiribati:
“Many of them say that it’s good to be beaten if they really have done something wrong. You know, this is a cultural traditional perception. It’s very difficult really to fight the violence when the people perceive that the violence can be used to settle the problems in the family or the community.”

But in a significant step forward, the village elders are working with the authorities to change the belief that physical punishment is an acceptable form of discipline.

SOUNDBITE (English) Joao Mendes, child Protection Officer, UNICEF, Kiribati:
“If you look at the police behaviour now, comparing to three, five years ago, it’s a little bit different because now the perception of the corporal punishment and violence in the family is totally different.”

And when children are subjected to violence, they are now encouraged to speak up. It is customary in Kiribati for women to take in children in need.

SOUNDBITE (English) Joao Mendes, child Protection Officer, UNICEF, Kiribati:
“Basically what happens if an orphan appears in the community... the extended family used to take the orphan and take care of him.”

Bas now lives in a violence-free environment with Sana and her family.

SOUNDBITE (Ikiribati) Sana, adoptive parent:
“Bas and I are always together. If she sees me, she comes to me and talks. She asks when she wants to drink and eat. She doesn’t like to talk with people only me. Wherever I go, she’s with me all the time.”