Mrs. Cynthia Mamle Morrison presenting the items to the Gambaga witches camp
Minister for Gender , Children and Social Protection, Cynthia Mamle Morrison , has supported the Gambaga witches camp in Gambaga, East Mamprusi municipality of the North East region.
The items donated include mattresses , clothes, bags of rice , bags of maize, tubers of yam, cartons of mackerel , bread , cartons of tin tomatoes, gallons of cooking oil, Veronica buckets, nose masks , cartons of soap, bags of beans, hand sanitizers among others.
About 87 alleged witches at the Gambaga witches camp have been successfully registered under the The Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty ( LEAP).
The alleged witches were also enrolled onto and provided with valid NHIS cards.
Meanwhile, the minister has cut sod for the drilling of mechanized boreholes to provide potable water to the witches camp.
Addressing the alleged witches at the camp, Mrs. Morrison said government was very committed to ensuring that the welfare of all Ghanaians was catered for and that no one was left behind in national growth and development.
According to her, the alleged witches in the camp prefer to live in the camps to returning to their communities because of reintegration challenges such as rejection, stigmatization , re-Accusation of witchcraft and the threat of death and violence.
The Minister said for the long term , the ministry will take steps to disband the camps and reintegrate the alleged witches into their community.
The disbandment will be preceded by engagements with stakeholders of the respective communities, extensive community sensitization and empowerment of the alleged witches.
“The long term measures will promote the acceptance of the return of the alleged witches , eliminate the incidence of witchcraft accusation and its associated violence.”
Mrs. Morrison disclosed that in line with government’s drive to improve the living conditions of all Ghanaians especially the extremely poor and vulnerable, the scope of the Ghana Productive Safety Net Project(GPSNP) has been restructured.
She indicated that the restructuring ensures the provision of emergency cash transfers to extremely poor and vulnerable persons and households who are not on any social protection programmes but are hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The minister hinted that the programme was targeted at 124,200 specific groups in selected districts across the country.
Beneficiaries, she said, include homeless persons, persons with disability , persons affected by floods and other extremely poor persons in the poorest regions of Ghana.
The implementation of the interventions will commence today November 19, 2020, and each beneficiary will receive a cash transfer ranging from Ghc 217.00 to Ghc 545.00, she said, adding that the support will enable alleged witches to meet their basic nutritional needs and improve their livelihood in the wake of Covid-19.
The Project Coordinator for the GO Home Project for the Gambaga alleged witches camp, Sampson Laar, thanked the minister for fulfilling her promise to the camp.
He, however, appealed to the ministry for a vehicle to enable the camp transport alleged witches to their various homes when they are reintegrated as well as using it to transport them to hospitals and carry out other activities of the camp.
The Gambaga witches camp currently houses 87 alleged witches with about 29 children.
The rooms of the camp are semi-hats and appeared not to be in good condition for habitation, a clear reflection of the massive accommodation constraint.
FROM Eric Kombat, Gambaga