Ho Ho 3

Training GES staff and teachers is the logical next step after screening and referrals. To date we have focused on a preparatory session on disability rights, actual classroom management and methodologies coming later.

Haruna and I training the Circuit Supervisors, the local inspectorate of schools.

A lunch time discussion:-teachers must uphold the rights of every child- to life, to education , to social participation.  Teachers must explain disabilities using scientific and medical terms- modern Ghana has outlawed traditional spirit practices.

In parts of northern Ghana, alongside medical advances, the introduction of routine ante natal and post natal care, and an encouragement to attend hospital for childbirth, traditional beliefs persist, below the surface, explaining a child born with disabilities, apportioning blame and guiding courses of action. If a pregnant mother sleeps outside in full moonlight, her baby may be born blind; if she bathes in a certain river, or similarly other innocent and random activities, any disability in the child may allegedly result.  Most seriously, although this practice is not openly talked of, difficult to quantify and increasingly challenged, the child born with disability is described not as a child but as a “spirit”, and as such must be returned to the spirit world.

Photo- from internet- Ghanaian undercover reporter Anas Aremeyaw Anas, a Banksy type figure and committed undercover investigative journalist. He works with Africa News, Africa Investigates, Al Jazeera and heads a Private investigation firm, Tiger Eye.

In 2012, Anas Aremeyaw Anas came to northern Ghana, to Sirigu,(in a neighbouring district) to film a documentary about the spirit child, the soothsayer who identifies the child as a “spirit”, and the concoction man who prepares a potion which he will administer to the “spirit”, before returning the body to the forest, to a special burial place. The documentary, aired on Al Jazeera, includes a sting operation, conducted by Bolgatanga Police, using a child as decoy and a convincing substitute dummy of a sleeping child, to capture a local soothsayer and concoction man and bring to justice under Ghanaian law.

The Bolgatanga based charity, AfriKids (with dual registration in Ghana and the UK), has also worked successfully on an extended project in Sirigu to end this practice, supporting those who previously made a living out of this practice into alternative enterprises and empowering local women to resist condemnation and blame associated with birthing a child with disability.

Photo- AfriKids- Sirigu Project

Talking about these practices and beliefs requires patience, sensitivity and respect for circumstances. But as Special Needs Officers, open discussions must be held, views aired and challenged in a constructive manner.

At one school meeting, we listened quietly as an older teacher recalled her experiences 21 years previously when she gave birth to a baby who did not develop as normal in the first few months of life. Her baby was declared to be a spirit, and killed.

I broke down and cried in a head teacher’s office, when, after meeting with a 13 year old boy, troubled with a huge abdominal hernia, under-development of facial features and the additional burden of sickle cell disease, Haruna and I were then told he had been abandoned by his father, his mother was divorced and fled south, the father later returning to try and kill his son, only to be beaten up and sent away by other family members.  The child is doing well at school, is openly included and is supported by Social Welfare funding.

In any country, rights for persons with disability have to be fought for, and guarded, never taken for granted. I am reminded of the grim humour and underlying attacks on persons with disability and chronic sickness in the UK today, in my favourite response to the death of Baroness Thatcher.  A spoof newspaper article declares her fit for work, under the ATOS managed Work Capability Assessment, the piece concluding:

“Accused of showing a total lack of compassion, ATOS released a statement saying, “It’s what she would have wanted.””

Disability Rights UK and many other campaigning groups, families, friends, professionals ( I count myself here) all have a job of work to do!

Photo- internet