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Page last updated at Monday, November 28, 2011 4:04 AM \/\/ <\/span><\/div>\nSouthern Sector Youth and Women\u2019s Empowerment Network (SOSYWEM) a non-governmental organization, has suggested that \u2018witches\u2019 camps must not be disbanded until sensitisation efforts have proved successful and the accusation and violence against the women have stopped.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this is not done, the same violence will be carried out in secrecy and violence against older and vulnerable women will increase,\u201d Ms Zenabu Lomoteley Sakibu, Project Coordinator for SOSYWEM, has said.<\/p>\n
She said this at a media interaction in Accra at the weekend to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, which fell on November 25.<\/p>\n
She said disbanding the camps before sensitisation efforts have proved successful would make the women homeless without even a place to seek some protection and would only exacerbate their plight.<\/p>\n
A \u2018Witches\u2019 Camp is a place which serves as a home for alleged witches after their accusation. Witches are believed to be people who have magical powers for causing evil in the society.<\/p>\n
She said the organization believed that such early disbandment of the camps was the wrong response to the problem.<\/p>\n
She said their research had showed the lack of understanding of how deeply engrained the beliefs in witchcraft are in these communities and how difficult it is to encourage the people to accept accused \u2018witches\u2019 back home.<\/p>\n
She said there has been a recent publication in one of the newspapers announcing that the intention of the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs that , \u201cBeginning next year, the \u2018Witches\u2019 Camps in the Northern Ghana will be disbanded while plans are far to collaborate with local opinion leaders and others to halt the practice\u2026\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSOSYWEM is pleased that attention is being given to the plight of women in the \u2018witches\u2019 camps and also to implement a strategy to end witchcraft accusation and the violence meted out to the accused women,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n
Ms Sakibu said her outfit had worked extensively with the women in the camps for many years and has found that most of the women were very fearful of returning to their communities explaining that, knowing that they would be violently abused, beaten or even killed, they preferred to live in relative security of the camp.<\/p>\n
She also recounted that experience had shown that even in the rare case that an accused woman was accepted back home, it could take about 5-10 years of sensitisation efforts before the community would agree to re-integration.<\/p>\n
Ms Sakibu urged the Government to strengthen the capacity of the Police Service and the Judiciary to deal with these violations of women\u2019s rights swiftly and to effectively deter others from accusing and violently abusing more women.<\/p>\n
She also called for the provision of basic necessities in the \u2018witches\u2019 camps including potable water, health insurance and insecticide treated bed nets.<\/p>\n
\u201cPut in place a longer-term strategy to abolish the \u2018witches\u2019 camps and ensure that any cultural practice that dehumanizes women have no place in our society,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
She said her outfit planned to collaborate with the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs to sensitise community members on the practice, while working with close partners, including District Assemblies, the Police Service, Ghana Health Service and the Commission on Human Rights and Administration Justice.<\/p>\n
Source: GNA<\/p>\n
Comments<\/h4><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
You Are Here: Home \u00bb General News \u00bb Sensitization efforts needed before disbandment of \u2018witches\u2019 Camps \u2013 NGO Page last updated at Monday, November 28, 2011 4:04 AM \/\/ Southern Sector Youth and Women\u2019s Empowerment Network (SOSYWEM) a non-governmental organization, has suggested that \u2018witches\u2019 camps must not be disbanded until sensitisation efforts have proved successful and the accusation and violence against the women have stopped. \u201cIf this is not done, the same violence will be carried out in secrecy and violence against older and vulnerable women will increase,\u201d Ms Zenabu Lomoteley Sakibu, Project Coordinator for SOSYWEM, has said. She said this at a media interaction in Accra at the weekend to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, which fell on November 25. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n
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