Six women accused of witchcraft were sent to the Gambaga Witches Camp in the Northern Region last month despite the efforts to abolish such practice.
The women, between the ages of 60 and 80, were sent by their families and some members of the communities who accused them of witchcraft.
The incident, which occurred in March, 2015, undermined national efforts to disband witches camps in the country.
The Project Co-ordinator of the Presby ‘Go Home Project’ at the camp, Mr Sampson Laar, disclosed this to journalists during a free health screening for the inmates of the camp last Tuesday.
The exercise was organised by My Life Fair, a non-governmental organisation, in partnership with the Lordina Foundation, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the Tamale Teaching Hospital to bring health care to the doorstep of the inmates.
With two mobile clinic vans and medical practitioners from the Tamale Teaching Hospital, the inmates were screened for general diseases such as malaria, hepatitis, diabetes and blood pressure. They were given free medication.
About the camp Last year, the Bonyase Witches Camp in the Northern Region was closed down after which 55 women were re-integrated with their families and communities.
The Gambaga Witches Camp in the East Mamprusi District in the Northern Region is one of five such facilities in the region which had been in existence for decades.
The facility serves as a refuge for hundreds of women accused of witchcraft and subsequently banished from their communities.
Currently, about 93 of such women are seeking refuge at the camp, together with their children and grandchildren, majority of whom are below 20 years.
The women and their children depend on proceeds from the farm of the Chief of Gambaga, Gambarana Yahaha Wuni, who is the spiritual overseer of the inmates, to fend for themselves. They also receive donations from charitable organisations and individuals for their upkeep.
The challenges With 89 mud structures serving as houses for these women, Mr Laar said sometimes, two women had to share one structure with their children.
He said although the Presby project had been able to reintegrate some of the inmates with their families and communities, more seemed to be coming in.
Between 2010 and 2014, he said 53 inmates were sent back home to their families after the church had taken the family, chiefs and youth through counselling and education.
He, therefore, called for support to embark on sensitisation programmes to educate the communities in order to abolish the act.
In a speech read on her behalf, the First Lady, Mrs Lordina Mahama, condemned the act of banishing a mother or grandmother for alleged witchcraft, saying it was an outmoded practice which needed to be stopped.
As a first step to give decent accommodation to the inmates and their children till they are reunited with their families, Mrs Mahama said the Lordina Foundation was currently facilitating a building project to provide a decent accommodation and vocational training institute for the inmates and their children.
According to the co-ordinator of the mobile clinic services at the Tamale Teaching Hospital, Dr Akis Afoko, the exercise was conducted to identify the medical problems of the inmates and the residents and offer treatment to them.
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