Trokosi women, children appeal for help

Accra, Feb. 28, GNA - Eighty women liberated from various shrines in the Volta region and their 224 children on Monday appealed to the government through the Women in the Lords Vineyard (WLV), a Non-governmental Organisation (NGO), for support.

The trokosi women, liberated from Dzita Agbledome, Fiatofeme, Adelashie, Yepe, Vodu, Edashie and Afashie shrines in the Anyanu, Savietula, Bomigo, and Dzita townships of the Volta region, are currently unemployed.

Their children are receiving formal and Christian education under deplorable conditions from Pastor Smile Soglo of the Assemblies of Jesus Church and seven other teachers who receive meagre allowances from some churches.

This came to light in an interview with Mrs Ethel McHarrison, founder and President of WLV. She told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra that since the 80 women were liberated in 1995, "not only have their and our lives been threatened by die-hard fetish priests and assistants, but their properties have also been stolen to aggravate their poverty."

Mrs McHarrison said through the effort of WVL, the women have overcome fears of death threats and have expressed interest in learning vocations such as tie and dye, soap, pomade and dress making, as well as fishing, farming and fish mongering.

She said the women and their children are currently in urgent need of dresses, food and shelter, adding that the contributions of the eight-member WLV and those of a few philanthropists is not enough to take care for their needs and to provide facilities for their rehabilitation.

Mrs McHarrison noted that the children who are up to class five outnumber the church building, which they use as a classroom. Some now sit on stones under mango trees during classes.

"We bought a large plot of land for 1.3 million cedis to construct classrooms for them but we do not have the funds for that." WLV has also acquired eight plots of land for shallot farming, three Chorkor smokers and started a sugarcane farm. Mrs McHarrison said in an attempt to integrate the women into society, she registered 50 of them with the 31st December Women's Movement (DWM), but due to bureaucratic bottlenecks, that step has not yielded the intended expectation.

"Several contacts with the National Commission on Women and Development (NCWD) and other government agencies dealing with women and children to raise support for these needy ones have so far proved futile."

She, therefore, appealed to the government and its various agencies, charitable, international and business organisations to support WLV with items such as fishing nets, fish smokers, tie and dye equipment, seedlings, building materials and cash to effectively rehabilitate these women and children.