Source: newsthemegh.com
Ablah Dzifa Gomashie, a member of parliament representing Ketu South, has demanded the abolishment of witch and wizard camps in the country.
Ablah Dzifa Gomashie, a member of parliament for Ketu South, has demanded that the nation’s witch and wizard camps be eliminated.
She believes that the practice of secluding and housing elderly individuals who have been accused of practicing witchcraft in witch camps is cruel and must be abandoned.
She pleaded with the authorities to obliterate all witch camps discovered around the nation, including the Gambaga, Kukuo, and Nabuli witch camps.
On Thursday, April 16, 2023, in honor of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD), Hon. Dzifa Gomashie made the request in a statement that she read on the floor of Parliament.
She praised the MPs for the Wa East and Madina Constituencies for taking the initiative to ensure the anti-witchcraft bill’s passing in order to give victims their sanity and dignity back.
She asked Parliament to pass the Bill as quickly as feasible.
Every year on June 15th, there is a celebration known as World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD). The International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (INPEA), which was initially formed in June 2006, submitted a proposal that led to its creation by the UN.
The United Nations predicts that the number of elderly people will more than double over the next three decades, reaching more than 1.5 billion people in 2050.
Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to experience the second-highest population growth, with the region’s population of those 65 and older expected to climb from 32 million in 2019 to 101 million in 2050 (218%)—behind only North Africa and Western Asia, which have had the strongest growth.
According to projections made by Ngnenbe (2015), Ghana’s old population would increase by 2.5 million by 2025 and reach 6 million by 2050, or nearly 12% of the country’s overall population.
She bemoaned the fact that one in three women may experience gender-based violence at some point in their lifetime.
She claims that between 33% and 77% of Ghanaian women have dealt with intimate partner violence at some point in their relationships.
Although both men and women experience this fate, she said that older ladies are particularly at risk, citing incidences in Salaga and Mion when people were killed on the pretext of being witches.
She claimed that because aging is an inevitable process, society must do more to protect the expanding population of elderly people.