Pater Badimak Yaro presenting the cheque and motorbike to Rev Sr. Monica Yahaya in Tamale
BasicNeeds-Ghana, a mental health and development advocacy organisation has donated GHC 35,000 and a motorbike to the Anawim Missionary Sisters.
The amount was to support their project which seeks to serve the needs of women accused of witchcraft in the Northern Region of Ghana.
The donation was made by the Executive Director of BasicNeeds-Ghana, Peter Badimak Yaro, and key staff of the organisation.
He explained that the donation was meant to support a farming project for inmates of the camps.
“The funds is meant for ploughing a field that the alleged witches can cultivate for their own use and secure a tricycle and some fuel to support their farming activities whereas the motorbike is to enable the sisters to go on outreach,” he said.
According to the Executive Director, the stigma, indignity, and shame these alleged witches go through and how they are forced to live may persist even longer and affect their mental health.
He noted that for most of these alleged witches, the camps are a safe haven where they can be protected from the anger of the communities they come from.
“It is for this reason that BasicNeeds-Ghana took an interest in supporting the Anawim Missionary Sisters to help these women to secure their food security.”
Rev Sr. Monica Yahaya who received the donation on behalf of the Superior General of the Anawim Missionary Sisters thanked the Board and Management of BasicNeeds-Ghana for their thoughtfulness and support to the poor and vulnerable inmates of the witches’ camps.
“The donation is the largest the Anawim Missionary Sisters had ever received in Ghana from any person or organisation to support their work.”
She said their activities serve the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of the rejected and the destitute adding that they practise apostolate of caring for orphans, the mentally ill, girls driven from their homes due to unplanned pregnancy, prisoners and those accused of witchcraft, especially women and the elderly.
Explaining how they fund their activities, she said “we rely on divine providence and the contributions from the lay faithful of the Catholic Church of the Yendi Diocese, our father – the Bishop of the Yendi Diocese, and other benevolent individuals outside the Yendi Diocese, particularly in Tamale.
The Anawim Missionary Sisters were invited to Ghana by the Bishop of the Yendi Diocese of the Catholic Church, Most Rev Vincent Sowah Boi-Nai, S.V.D in 2012.
Currently, they support camps of alleged witches in five towns in the Northern Region, namely, Kpatinga, Gushegu, Nabuli, N’gani and Kukuo – all located within the Yendi Diocese of the Catholic Church.
FROM Eric Kombat, Tamale