As refugees in Ghana's 'witch camps,' more than a thousand elderly women have been banished from society after being accused of using black magic to cause injury or misfortune to another person.
These women have been cut off from their communities and families, left to fend for themselves or die. They end up in the 'witch camps' (six of which are located in northern Ghana) because they have nowhere else to go. They depend on the camp, and the charity of people across the world, to survive.
James Nipper, vice-president of Petro Chemical Energy in Russellville, and his family recently traveled to one of Ghana's 'witch camps' and spent a week on a medical mission trip.
Nipper serves on the board of directors of Ghana West Africa Missions, or GWAM. The organization started drilling water wells more than 30 years ago in the country. Volunteers would go into communities comprised of 95 percent Muslim populations and dig wells and help convert the residents to Christianity by giving them fresh water.
GWAM's water program has drilled more than 960 wet wells fitted with hand pumps in nine regions of Ghana.
Additionally, they have repaired 545 broken down wells, established and trained more than 1,300 water sanitation committees, disinfected 5,600 contaminated water points in 1,500 communities, trained 120 pump mechanics and established the largest water well equipment sales program in northern Ghana, according to www.gwam.org.
Nipper's involvement in GWAM began when Colton Scott, a fellow church member at Sherrod Avenue Church of Christ in Florence, was hired as the group's marketing director. He asked Nipper last year to consider serving on the board of directors and he was placed on the board last November.
Along with his wife Heather, their daughter Hannah and 17 others, Nipper traveled to northern Ghana for a nine-day trip in late May.
Hannah, a certified nurse's aide, wanted to volunteer on a medical mission trip, so through the coordination of the Ghana Health Services, three doctors and three nurses joined the six volunteers to spend a week doing health screenings in a 'witch camp.'
The trip also saw the construction of a new water well dug in the city of Yendi.
“In three days we screened 550 people and 56 of those had malaria,” Nipper said. We gave some type of medication to all the people, more than $3,000 in all. We're going to make this a yearly trip.”
Nipper, his family and another family raised $10,000 to pay for the trip, including the medication administered to the residents.
Although he's traveled to Africa for business in the past, this was Nipper's first trip to Ghana.
“It makes you appreciate what we have in the United States so much more,” Nipper said.
With few of the 'witch camp' residents speaking English, the group relied on a local church to help with translation and organization. Through the involvement of the church, several of the residents began attending services, Nipper said.
Ghana is a West African country that borders the Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Togo. The country gained its independence from Britain in 1957 and became known as Ghana rather than the Gold Coast.
Although the country is peaceful, it consists of more than 50 different ethnic groups, each with their own customs, beliefs and languages. Some of those beliefs include a belief that any misfortune or tragedy in a village must be attributable to witchcraft. Once a priest identifies the witch responsible for the act, she must be 'cast out' of the community.
