Author Archives: Songtaba

PRESS STATEMENT !!!

The Regional Reintegration Committee calls for Justice for Mma Safura Imoro and Mba Cherefo accused of Witchraft and lynched at Zakpalsi  community in the Mion District of the Northern Region

We the members of the Northern Regional Reintegration committee on Witchcraft Accusation and Disbandment of Allege Witches’ camps wish to condemn the lynching of Safura Imoro,  a middle aged woman in her forties  and Mba Cherefo, an elderly man in Zakpalsi in the Mion District of the Northern Region on suspicion of Witchcraft. It is unfortunate to learn that the two were lynched in the early hours of Sunday, 7th May, 2023. This is barbaric and an afront to Human Rights, especially as Ghana has signed onto a number of international human rights conventions including the CEDAW.

The particular worrying thing is that Mma Safura was killed at the forecourt of the Zakpalsi Naa Palace. She left behind 7 children, the last of which is only 3 years old.

This is a clear case of an alleged murder and there should not be any interference in order to give the police the space to do their investigations.

We wish to commend the police for their early visit to the scene in the community and urge them to press this through.

We collectively call on the police to act swiftly on this issue in order to bring the perpetrators to book and give justice to the victims and their families.

On this note, we appeal to traditional leaders to support the Police to give justice to the victims and their families whilst calling on Parliament to hasten the passage of the Anti-witchcraft bill into law.

We urge the general   public to desist from taking the law into their hands.

The committee can confirm that the case was reported to the police at the Mion District.

Reintegration Committee Members: ActionAid, Songtaba, CHRAJ, DoVVSU, Department of Gender, Representatives of traditional and Religious leaders.

Songtaba hosted Plan International Canada CEO, Plan International Ghana country Director , Global Affairs Canada Board and Donors at Zugu Community in Kumbungu to interact with project partners including showcasing of project impact under the WVL (Women Voice and Leadership) project.

Stakeholder learning and sharing forum on the promoting women mental health rights in Ghana. The purpose of this forum is to take feed back and suggestions from stakeholders on implementation and sustainability measures.

JOB VACANCY-FINANCE OFFICER-SONGTABA

Songtaba with funding support from Empower intends to create a business Ecosystem to provide training for young entrepreneurs and roll out a business finance challenge for interested young persons especially grants.

Interested persons can register via the link below and also send their concept note to [email protected]

 Click on the link below and register

https://forms.office.com/r/jiAfniReje

Songtaba in partnership with Ghana SOMUBI DWUMADIE under the Promoting Women Mental Health Rights in Ghana project, disseminated a research findings and shared the report with key stakeholders in the Northern Region.

The findings were on a research conducted to; determine the Prevalence of depression, Quality of Life and Gender dynamics in Witchcraft Accusations in the Northern and North East Regions of Ghana.
The dissemination exercise was to present the findings especially the conclusions and recommendations before key stakeholders in the region to cause them make commitments towards improving mental healthcare service delivery and also support to the inmates in the alleged witches’ camps. Copies of the full report were also presented to key stakeholders and departments.

Some highlights from the findings in the report were; inmates in all four alleged witches camps have low quality of life, 52.71% are suffering from severe depression, 93.5% of the inmates are women, all inmates want reintegration and among others.

Regional Stakeholder Forum organised by Songtaba in Partnership with Ghana Somubi Dwmadie funded by UKaid holds dialogue forum to  discuss social protection issues among identified vulnerable groups.

Songtaba is women and child rights advocacy organization that have been working to secure the basic rights of marginalized groups.

In the last 12 months, Songtaba have been working closely with mental health unit of Ghana Health Service and Department of Social Welfare at the district level to implement a project on promoting Women Mental Health Rights in Ghana.

This project has the alleged witches in the four camps and the mental health patience as the direct beneficiaries .