Ending the Spirit Child Phenomenon in Sirigu, orphaned Paul Apowida raise awareness and pledge to consign the belief to history

(Saturday, January 7, 2012 The Mirror) Story: Benjamin Xornam Glover, Bolgatanga Meet Paul Apowida, a native of Sirigu in the Kassena Nankana West District of the Upper East Region. As a child, both his parents died shortly after he was born. As a result of this, traditional healers (soothsayers in the village) tagged him as a “spirit child”, meaning he was possessed by evil spirits who had brought misfortune to his parents and was capable of extending that malevolent spirit to the entire community. He was condemned to death by the soothsayer who instructed Paul’s stepmother to feed him with poisonous herbs. Paul survived the ordeal and was later saved by a kindly Catholic Sister, Jane Naaglosegme who had been posted to Sirigu to start a care home, Mother of Mercy Babies Home for ‘Spirit Children”. Young Paul was nursed backed to health and with support from a Bolgatanga based charity organization, Afrikids Ghana, Paul was sent to the SOS home in Tema, where he attended school and later trained as an artist. Many of his paintings were sold to raise funds for Afrikids, the organization that saved his life Afterwards, he moved to the United Kingdom and while there he enlisted into the British Army. After his training in the army, he was posted to Afghanistan on peace keeping mission. Paul now in his mid 20’s recently return from his mission in Afghanistan and as part of his effort to repay the kindness extended to him by Afrikids and also raise fund for the organization embarked on a 35 kilometer marathon from Afrikids, Ghana Headquarters in Bolgatanga to his native village of Sirigu. Accompanied by two professional athletes and staff of the Charity organization, Paul completed the challenge in two hours, thirty minutes and later addressed a durbar of chiefs, opinion leaders, the youth, women, men and youth on the need to end the spirit child phenomenon. Speaking to this reporter, an emotional Paul said coming back home and meeting all this people welcoming him makes him feel so proud. He expressed his appreciation to Afrikids for giving him the opportunity to become who he is now most importantly underscored the need to end the practices of killing innocent children all in the name of the spirit-child phenomenon. Addresing a durbar at Sirigu to mark the end of the belief in spirit children paul expressed his appreciation to his benefactors, Sister Jane Naaglosegme of the Mother of Mercy Babies’ Home, and staff of Afrikids, especially the founder , Georgie Fienberg of UK and the Country Director, Mr. Nicholas Kumah for their assistance. “There are many reasons that I should not be standing here with you today…As an infant I was accused of being a spirit and on the loss of my parents my family tried to have me killed. As a child I was sent to Accra, to a good school and home, but without my family and my people around me,” he said As a young adult I struggled to support myself on the streets of Accra, trying to make it as an artist. As a soldier in the British army I have encountered the dangers of Afghanistan, and the European winters. And finally today, as if all of this was not enough, I have been asked to run the final leg home from Bolga to Sirigu in return for sponsorship for AfriKids!” “But I am not standing here today asking for your pity, I am standing here to celebrate with you the fact that my life has been blessed and the lives of many children like me since have also been blessed. Through all of the challenges I have faced there has been two constant things; one is the internal strength of the people of the Kassena Nankana District which is in me, and the second has been AfriKids” he said. “Together I hope you can see we have proved that my diagnosis as a spirit child was wrong, just as it has been wrong for every other child that has been accused”, he concluded. He said he was so pleased that as an adult, he has able to repay some of this kindness, supporting his brothers and sisters in SOS, Tema, raising over 90,000GHC for AfriKids in painting sales and serving Britain, the country that ultimately helped him in the army. He was grateful that things are now changing in the village with people now benefiting from improved healthcare and people are now recognising that children cannot be spirits., “ all children are human and deserve a decent life”, he added. The Country Director of Afrikids Ghana, Mr. Nicholas Kumah said the organisation, having worked in the Sirigu Community over the past 10 years have made an impressive headway with the phenomenon gradually dying down. “We have met all the village medicine man, popularly referred to as concoction men, and they tell us for the past two to three years, people have not come for consultation. This is an indication that the phenomenon is gradually dying”, he said. Mr. Kumah added that Paul Apowida homecoming will also bolster teh drive among the community members that they don’t have to tag innocent babies as evil children and later have them killed all in the name of tradition. -End