Afrikids holds Declaration durbar to end spirit child phenomenon

Country Director of Afrikids subjected to questions by the media

23-12-2011    

Paul Apowida joined in the race by some students in Sirigu

Almost killed for being a ‘spirit child’, Paul Apowida, now Ambassador for Afrikids Ghana, an NGO returns to Ghana to run the 35 kilometers from the Afrikids Ghana headquarters in Bolgatanga to Sirigu, a farming community in the Kassena-Nankana West of the Upper East Region where he was born. The 2 hour marathon race supported by two regional athletes and staff of Afrikids was to raise wider awareness to mark the beginning of the end to the spirit child phenomenon. At a grand durbar of chiefs and people of Sirigu in honour of Paul Apowida, the Country Director for Afrikids Ghana, Nicholas Kuma said the day mark a significant milestone in the anals of Afrikids because Afrikids as a child right NGO has for the past years spearheaded the campaign against spirit child phenomenon and to raise enough fund to support many more children in communities where the practice still exist. The fund, he said, is targeting about GHc 90,000 for series of activities to be carried in those communities to support the eradication of the phenomenon. Mr. Kumah announced that Afrikids is now partnering with so called ‘concoction men’ and has brought them under an umbrella of one association. According to him, feedback from the concoction men had proven that the practice is steadily declining. This he said means that his outfit is making headway in the fight against the spirit child phenomenon. He appealed to all gathered to join in the fight since there is nothing like spirit child. In an interview with Radio Ghana, Paul Apowida now a soldier in the British army said he owe a debt of gratitude to Afrikids and its development partners for making him what he is today. According to him, his diagnosis as a spirit child was wrong, just as it has been wrong for every other child that has been accused. According to him, he is back in the country to spearhead the campaign against spirit child phenomenon and called on the people to give him the needed assistance to help him achieve his set objective.

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