A family in the Wassa East District of the Western Region, has confined a 28-year-old woman in an animal shelter for 15 years, over alleged witchcraft.
Grace Ama Afful was labelled a witch and subsequently kept in isolation for her inability to stand upright for eight years after birth.
According to Angel FM’s correspondent in the region, Nana Kwaku Ackon, the family is of the belief that Grace, on her own volition, bewitched herself not to ever stand up.
Confined in a poorly constructed mud house made for keeping livestock for a period of 15 years, she now looks hunchbacked: her spine has curved outward due to her prolonged sitting posture in the shelter.
Being destitute, she lays on clothes which have been gathered from dump sites and she hardly takes her bath.
Her only younger sister, Sarah Abena Afful (26), provides food and water for her in a bowl she apparently shares with a pet dog in the shelter.
She said in Twi: “We are destitute of money and resources. All the money I have has gone into providing for her [Grace] and my sick mother who suffers from stroke. Our father has passed so I’m the only one who provides for the family.”
“I plead with the government to come to our aid because we have nothing to eat. I no longer have money to take care of her and my mother,” she added.
Meanwhile, the Social Welfare authorities in the Wassa District, to whom the abuse has been reported, have given the family members a one-month ultimatum to build a befitting room for the victim to dwell in.
