General News of Monday, 14 January 2013

Source: radioxyzonline

Advocacy alone can’t stop killing of disabled children - Anas

Ace Investigative Journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas says advocacy alone is ineffective in tackling the age-old practice of deliberately killing disabled children in the Upper East region as a means of curing alleged misfortunes.

Anas Aremeyaw revealed the dastardly practice recently in his latest undercover work which he named “spirit child”.

He found that many families in the region hire elderly male spiritualists who declare disabled children as harbingers of misfortune for their families.

The parents of the children willingly conspire to the killing by having so called concoction men administer a poisonous potion mixed from lethal herbs.

In an interview with XYZ News, he said the age-old practice can effectively be tackled if the laws are enforced to stop the blatant human rights abuse of the children in that region.

“Over the years advocacy has been used as a tool to stop people from engaging in this practice but there has not been any single arrest of anybody killing these children.

My point in this investigation was simple, that advocacy alone cannot lead to the effective eradication or a modern democratic Ghana and a combination of advocacy and law enforcement will do the trick for us”.