Photo: Caterina Pino/IRIN Shazey Mazongy. Kakuma refugee camp. Kenya
NAIROBI, 17 June 2010 (IRIN) - Shazey Mazongy, 25, fled the volatile North Kivu Province of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and arrived in Kakuma refugee camp, northwestern Kenya, hoping for a better life. But then her husband started drinking heavily. From a safe haven in the camp, she told IRIN how the abuse was so bad she thought he would kill her:
"I arrived in Kakuma about three years ago, with my husband and three children. I started selling bread to get some money to feed our children. My husband was so depressed he started drinking and using all the money I was making to buy beers.
"He became aggressive and paranoid about me cheating on him. The first time he hit me, I thought it would never happen again. He is drunk, I told myself, and it had never happened before in the five years we were together. I was wrong. He became more and more violent.
"He wanted to go home, missed life in Congo. He did not have a job in the camp, and the more he drank, the less likely he was to provide for us. The neighbours used to hear me screaming. He was beating me hard and the children were frightened. I used to tell them everything was fine, but I knew they could see bruises on my body.
"This went on for over a year. I always hoped things would get better. Once we were a happy family and he was a thoughtful husband.
"One night he came home, drunk, grabbed me and shaved my head with a razor. The pressure he put on the razor was so hard he removed part of the skull. [Then] he stabbed me in the back with a knife and left the house, shouting that this was what I deserved for being unfaithful. He left me on the floor bleeding, with our children there, who witnessed everything.
"I lay on the floor, feeling weaker and weaker. I thought I was going to die. The doctors saved me but I was in pain for months because of an infection and the scars on my head are still very bad.
"My husband was in jail for a few months. After they released him a year ago, my children and I were put into a protection programme. We live in this safe haven, a small area inside the camp, fenced and with guards who regularly check on us. We live here with other women and their kids, who had similar experiences and, like me, fear for their lives.
"My husband has tried to apologize several times, but I am not ready to go back to him. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night imagining he is walking in with a knife, trying to kill us all. We leave the shelter very rarely and only under escort from one of the guards.
"I can't believe my kids cannot play around freely like they used to. I feel so sad for them. I wanted to give them a better future and instead they are forced to live in a cage. Maybe if we had stayed in Kivu, all of this would have not happened and we would still be a happy family."
cp/mw
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