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Tamale, Ghana – The Presby Go Home project, an initiative of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, has revealed that 90 percent of all alleged witches currently seeking refuge at the Gambaga Witches Camp in the East Mamprusi District of the Northern Region of Ghana, are willing to be reintegrated into their communities to live with family members.
According to Project Manager, Samson Laar, only 10 percent of the old women, largely between the ages of 50-80 years were unwilling to be reintegrated owing to fear of being rejected or attacked by the very people who threw them out of their homes.
“…in Gambaga, I will tell you that less than 10 percent do not want to go home, almost everybody wants to go home. The problem is that any time we are able to settle the cases amicably, the women are very happy to go back home, but if the cases are not settled and you are pushing her to go home how will she express the joy of going home?
“But I am telling you over 90 percent are really interested in joining their families if the families are ready to receive them. I’ve worked there and I’m still working there and I’ve interacted with women, just less than 10 percent might not be interested in going home,” he disclosed on Tamale-based Radio Tamale.
Mr Laar also indicated that about 80 of women have been successfully reintegrated with their families through the project, but stressed that much needed to be done to achieve the overall goal of the project.
“So far we have sent home 80 women and if you want to verify this I will take you round to see these women I’m talking about. So if the notion is that they don’t want to go how are we able to send them home? So people must be honest and let’s see how we can help these women,” he pointed out.
He called for the challenges to be addressed in the communities where witchcraft accusations were still rampant before the government could take concrete steps in closing down the camp as well as the others in the Northern Region.
The Project Manager of the Presby Go Home project expressed concern that the number of persons at the 5 witches camps in region were still recording fresh cases every now and then.
By Savannahnews
