This follows the alleged witches’ recent complaints of starvation since the suspension of their grants payment under the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme.

[contextly_sidebar id=”X3k80Jer3g0rx7YLqSMD5F8r8crv2TUI”]Representatives of Yendi, East Mamprusi, Nanumba South and Gushiegu district assemblies, at a day’s workshop dubbed “Working with alleged witches,” renewed their commitment to support the ostracized women.

The workshop was under the auspices of women and child rights advocacy Non-Governmental Organization, Songtaba, and funded by STAR-Ghana, UK Aid, DANIDA and the European Union.

It brought together local government officials and Civil Society Organizations to propagate the implementation of policies required for the protection of the alleged witches.

The participants included district coordinating Directors and planners, officials of the Department of Social Welfare, the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), the Domestic Violence Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana police service and the Legal Aid.

Civil Society Organizations including NORSAAC, the Go Home project, and the Reintegration Committee were also present.

The four district assemblies hosting the ostracized women promised to renew their health insurance, ensure the release of their LEAP grants, and support community-level sensitization and reintegration exercises.

The Civil Society Organizations agreed to use the alleged witches network to build synergies as a means of mainstreaming issues of witchcraft accusations and to curtail its accompanying human rights violations.

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By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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As a pro-poor government programme, a former Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, proposed the registration of all alleged witches in the Northern Region as beneficiaries of the LEAP programme.

Lately, Executive Director of Women and Child Rights advocacy Non-Governmental Organization called Songtaba, Hajia Lamnatu Adam, revealed that not all inmates of the five alleged witches’ camps in the Northern Region are benefiting from the LEAP programme.

Addressing a workshop in Tamale,dubbed, “Working with alleged witches,” the Nanumba South District Director of the Department of Social Welfare, Abdul Rashid Ziblim, revealed that majority of the beneficiaries particularly those at the Kukuo alleged witches camp are yet to receive their grants.

He described the situation as worrisome, against the backdrop that the LEAP programme remains the beneficiaries major source of livelihood.

Abdul Rashid Ziblim passionately appealed to the Gender, Children and Social Protection Minister, Otiko Afisa Djaba, to fix the problem, saying, “If you reintegrate someone wherever he or she finds himself or herself, he or she can still have access to the funds because it on Ezwich.”

“Reintegrating someone and even denying him or her this cash is even bringing more pressure and creating more vulnerability in the system.”

Songtaba’s Executive Director, Hajia Lamnatu Adam, said the workshop sought to mobilize and build the alleged witches’ confidence to engage stakeholders on their situation, and to reinforce calls for reintegration and closure of the camps.

“The aim is to empower these women to live lives of dignity to enjoy their basic rights and participation in decision making in a violence free environment.”

Touching on short-term measures, she explained that “The workshop is to increase awareness of the women on their rights, advocate for district assemblies’ budget to be responsive to the social needs of the camps. Also it is to build the confidence of the regional network of the alleged witches to adequately engage government and traditional authority.”

She raised challenges associated with attempts to disband and reintegrate the alleged witches.

“There is still a mixed feeling about the reintegration of alleged witches. Belief in superstition is high, hence the inability of women to report abuse and violation of their rights to the appropriate authorities.”

“The reintegration process is cumbersome, and requires a lot of travelling, and cost no clear law or provision specifically to deal with witchcraft allegations against women who can’t mobilize the items for pacification of the gods.”

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By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Kukuo ‘witches’ camp cries over delayed LEAP support appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

She indicated that, the relief is meant to give hope to fistula patients and to embolden them to come out for medical treatment.

The Minister made the announcement on her visit to the Fistula Centre of the Mercy Women Hospital at Mankessim in the Mfantseman Municipality of the Central Region.

The visit forms part of the Gender Minister’s working tour of the Municipality on Wednesday, to monitor the payment made to beneficiaries of LEAP and to get first-hand information on the challenges facing the programme in that part of the region.

Interacting with fistula patients at the hospital, Afisa Djaba said, “Ghana has between seven hundred and eleven and one thousand, two hundred fistula patients. But these women are hiding themselves inside. We need to send the message to them, so that every female with fistula will report it for us to help her because there is hope; there is treatment”.

Most of the women shared their stories about how their husbands have abandoned or divorced them due to the uncomfortable nature of the ailment.

Responding to the women, the Minister stated that her Ministry’s additional plans to enroll them onto the LEAP Cash Plus programme, which will equip them with skills to help the women set up their own small-scale businesses after recovering to earn some income.

Earlier on her tour, the Minister visited a LEAP pay point at Ndasimam, a community in the Municipality, where the programme covers about 270 beneficiaries from sixty-eight households.

She witnessed payments to some beneficiaries and admonished the old men and women to be more concerned about their health.

The LEAP supports about five hundred beneficiaries from 157 households in the Mfantseman Municipality.

The Municipality, according to the 2010 Population and Housing Census, has only about 28% of the population living in urban centres, while 51% are into fishing, 30% into farming and 19% engaged in commerce.

The Minister also donated fifteen bags of rice and some gallons of oil to the Muslim community at Saltpond Zongo to support them in their month of fasting.

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By: Joseph Ackon-Mensah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Fistula patients to be placed on LEAP – Otiko Djaba appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

In an interview with CNN, when the actor was asked whether we had seen the last of White, he replied: “Hey, you never saw bags zip up or anything.”

Presenter Ashley Banfield asked, “Is he dead?”, to which Cranston replied, “I don’t know.”

In response to whether the character would appear anywhere else again, he added: “Never say never.”

Cranston’s co-star Aaron Paul revealed a few weeks ago that he’d found it difficult to come to terms with no longer playing his character Jesse Pinkman.

“It took a minute,” he said. “It was hard for me to say goodbye to Jesse. I love him.”

As previously confirmed, Paul said a forthcoming Breaking Bad spin-off – called Better Call Saul – would star Bob Odenkirk as lawyer Saul Goodman, who featured in the original show.

“It would be nice to play Jesse Pinkman again in his happier times,” he said.

Better Call Saul will be aired on Netflix in November 2014.

Breaking Bad launched in 2008 and went on to win several awards, including 10 Emmys.

Source: BBC

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