Ms Lydia Alhassan, a Philanthropist and founder of Concern Life Foundation, as part of her project dubbed "Hunger Noe be Joke", has supported inmates of the Gambaga Witches Camp in the Northern Region.
The inmates were trained in livelihood skills, medically screened and presented food and clothing. Ms Alhassan speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency said the project seeks to support abused women and children to help reintegrate them into society.
"It is about time we stopped the discrimination against women, especially the elderly ones and rather show them love during their old age. They need our care, support and love more than ever at this stage of their lives.
"It is my belief that everybody especially the less privileged women in society have the right to live a normal life and also be given the opportunity to become responsible in society just like any other person”, she said.
Ms Alhassan said she found it difficult to understand why women at their old age would be accused of witchcraft, neglected, excluded from their communities and thrown into a secluded camp.
“Have we ever, as Ghanaians sat down to think about the trauma they go through whiles in the camp? Have we considered their welfare and human rights, the right to live a dignified life? If we did, the world would be a better place for all, irrespective of our social standing”, she said.
She again questioned why it was only grandmothers who were often accused of witchcraft and not grandfathers, saying, “These are all old superstitions created to keep women down”.
Ms Alhassan has pledged that her foundation, Concern Life Foundation, with commitment, will continue to support and empower women and the children at the Camp, irrespective of where they found themselves.
She urged people not to blame their grandmothers if they had not been successful in life.
“Blame yourself. Your lack of success or inability to gain something in life is not the making of any old lady or witchcraft. Look into yourself and continue praying to God”, she advised. She urged families who have banished their mothers, grandmothers to rethink and reunite with them and possibly reintegrate them into their family.
“I am looking forward to the day when society will stop accusing old women of witchcraft and those who have already been accused and sent to these camps been reintegrated, I will be the happiest person in the world Ms Alhassan said.
She urged government through the Ministry of Gender and Social Protection to provide LEAP support for residents of the camp. Ms Alhassan said school children within the camp will also be looked into by the organization where they will supported in their education, in collaboration with the ‘Presby Go Home Project’ that operate within the Camp as well as Supportive Hands Foundation to ensure its sustainability.