Snakes and scorpions prey on Fententaa refugees

Some inmates at the Fententaa Refugee Camp have appealed for assistance to enable them put up proper structures to prevent snake and scorpion bites.

They said because majority of them still slept in tents on the uncemented floor, some of them sometimes suffered snake and scorpion bites in the night.

The inmates made the appeal in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA)at Fententaa in the Berekum Municipality.

They lamented that their plight was aggravated whenever it rained in the night, because it become extremely difficult for them to sleep.

The National Secretariat of the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service had earlier organized a day’s sensitization workshop on community mobilization on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence and Sexual Reproductive Health for the leadership of the camp.

Other participants of the workshop were traditional authorities and opinion leaders from indigenous communities around the camp.

It was sponsored by the United Nations Population Fund, and facilitated by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The inmates appealed to philanthropists and non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) to assist them with building materials, to enable them put up proper structures for accommodation.

They also pleaded with NGOs and individuals for financial support, to expand their small-scale farms to increase productivity.

The inmates advised Ghanaians to avoid violence by accommodating one another, in order to prevent conflicts and wars which only displaced the populace and destroyed nations.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP)Lydia Osei Agyemang, Administrator of DOVVSU National Secretariat, urged the refugees to be law-abiding and report any acts of domestic violence and sexual abuse to the police for the perpetrators to be punished to deter others.