"Witches" Resort to Prostitution for Survival

About 75 inmates of the Naabuli witches camp in the Gushegu district have appealed to government to support them to survive. They disclosed that prostitution was their source of income for survival because there were no job opportunities and that their clients pay Gh 50 pesewas for sexual bout.

This came to light when the Christian Outreach Fellowship in collaboration with the Gate Way of Hope Incorporated visited the camp to register the about 75 inmates under the National Health Insurance Scheme. Speaking at the ceremony, the Executive Director of the Christian Outreach Fellowship, Emmanuel Anukun

Dabson unreservedly stated that Ghana’s quest to attain her Millennium Development Goals by the year 2015 will be an exercise in futility if that achievement was not linked to the respect and dignity of women. He explained that such a goal could not be achieved in a society where some women alleged to be witches were languishing at various witch camps spread in some parts of the Northern region. He fumed that the alleged witches stay at the Naabuli camp was an act of injustice which should not be tolerated in modern day Ghana.

About Gh 1,200 cedis was spent on the exercise in addition to some donated used clothing and other valuables for the upkeep of the inmates who have lived under deplorable conditions over the years. According to Mr. Dabson God created human beings equally and wondered why especially some women should be banished from their homes and languishing in some cut-off areas due to widespread misconception that they are witches for one reason or the other.

He revealed that the Christian Outreach Fellowship ministry discovered the Naabuli witch camp in June 2009 when it embarked on one of its major out-of Accra outreach evangelical mission to rural north to preach the word of God. He said the Christian Outreach Fellowship has since contributed to alleviating the plight of the alleged 75 witches through several donations in kind, cash and in spirituality and said the exercise would continue unabated.

Jojo Entsuah, President of Gate Way of Hope Incorporated, a non profit making charity organization for his part, called on government, human right groups and policy makers to rise up to the task of eradicating the canker of witch camps which have been replicated in most parts of the Northern region.