Journalists for Human Rights

The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly’s program to get the mentally ill off the streets appears to face serious challenges.  After months of talking, the assembly went into action at the beginning of the Africa Cup of Nations football tournament, which ended February 10th.  Thirty mentally ill people have been rounded up, with the idea of housing and rehabilitating them at the Kumasi Cheshire Home.

But while administrators at the Cheshire Home applaud the initiative, it appears to be plagued by problems.  Abena Amoah Gyamfi reports.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (350)

Accra Psychiatric Hospital’s medical director, Dr. Akwasi Osei, has called upon Ghana’s Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to force the Ghana Police Service to deal with throngs of patients living in substandard conditions in the hospital. This isn’t exactly news. The hospital, originally constructed to hold 200, now holds more than a thousand. Patients are brought in by the courts, their families, and some even walk off the street and admit themselves. Most eat one meal a day and more than half sleep on the floor due to a lack of beds. However, Dr. Osei has gone on to say that many patients at the hospital have been deemed mentally fit by staff and ready to integrate back into society. The problem is that many of them have nowhere to go, and thus are forced to stay within the confines of the hospital.  According to Dr. Osei, the situation is becoming increasingly dire. I went with JOY NEWS reporter Bernard Saibu to the hospital to speak with Dr. Osei and some of the patients in the “Special Ward” - built for 60 patients and holding 218. 150 of them are considered mentally healthy.  We asked the patients - who immediately began lining up in droves to tell their stories - whether they were ready to leave the hospital, and why they couldn’t. Their nurse, Atchoo, stood by us watchfully as we spoke. Although neither of us are mental health experts, most of the patients we spoke to were lucid and seemed self-sufficient, and this was confirmed by the nurses. Some told us they had been sent to the hospital after committing a crime while high on weed or drunk, and this was enough evidence to put their mental health in doubt. The stigma surrounding the mentally ill in Ghana isn’t as strong as in other African countries, but it’s there, in vernacular and in practice. You can see it in the way government officials - educated men living in the 21st century - refer to sick people living on the street as “lunatics” or “madmen.” More troublingly, you can see it in the faces of these abandoned men. Even if you’re considered healthy by medical experts, the stain of mental illness persists, driving away friends and family who have been shamed by your condition. As my colleague conducted some interviews in Twi, I looked around the ward - a single open-air room where the male patients circled about, bathed, or sat quietly listening to the radio. Occasionally arguments erupted around the room, while other men slept on sheets on the floor. One patient told us that although he felt fine, the claustrophobic environment of the ward sometimes made him want to kill himself. His brother used to come to visit but has not returned for some time. “I don’t understand,” he told us. “Why does he make me wait here? I want to go home.” After he finished speaking, he quietly thanked us, shook our hands and returned to a bench near the middle of the room. He joined a group of men sitting and listening to the radio. None of them spoke. We went back to the station where Saibu filed this report.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (262)

As Ghanaians indulge in another National Chocolate Day, recent news releases would suggest that the country’s cocoa industry is finally paying off for farmers. Government has provided road repairs, scholarships and bonuses for farmers in regions across the country. Meanwhile, a number of fair trade initiatives are trying to equalize the relationship between cocoa farmers and the companies that purchase their beans. However, the farmers themselves tell a different story. Seth Kwame Boateng traveled to a cocoa-farming village in the Amansie West District of the Ashanti Region. He reports that some cocoa farmers are still struggling to make ends meet even as they produce the country’s second-largest export.

Seth Kwame Boateng reports with files from Alison Lang

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (331)

Many of the world’s miracle economic turnaround stories have been written with the aid of the information superhighway.  Countries like Mayalasia and Singapore have been able to transform their economies in a short period of time, due in large part to the widespread of embrace of, and investment in information technology.  Is such a turnaround possible in Ghana?  There are signs the country is waking up to the importance of computers and the internet, but there are still significant hurdles.  Kofi Adu-Domfeh investigates.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (270)

The West African nation of Ghana celebrated 50 years of independence in 2007.

While Ghana is a stable and democratic nation, the country still struggles with a number of human rights issues.

To address those issues, Journalists for Human Rights places Canadian media trainers in Ghanaian newsrooms to work with local journalists in covering human rights stories.

The goal of the five-year plan is to help curb human rights abuses by using the media to increase the public’s awareness of human rights issues.

This video case study examines JHR’s strategy and its effectiveness.

Directed and Produced by Doug Murray

Watch Now:

 Online Video: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (233)

A former child soldier tells his story to Premier News’ Abu Bakarr Munu, Jennifer Hollett and Kim Brunhuber. He now wants to write a book about his experiences, just like his role model Ishmael Beah.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (241)

Jennifer Hollett, Premier News reporter Abu Bakarr Munu, and Kim Brunhuber interviewed a very special amputee in Freetown who has managed to overcome a tragic disability in order to make a living as a carver.

Watch Now:

 Podcast Video: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (134)

The UN has mandated February 6th as of Zero Tolerance For FGM Day. FGM entails a partial or total removal of the clitoris from the female organ. Practitioners believe it reduces promiscuity in women, but the practice has serious health implications for victims. Under the Ghanaian constitution of 1994, FGM is considered prohibited as a “customary practice” that is considered dehumanizing and “injurious to the physical and mental well-being of a person.” In addition, the Criminal Code in 1994 officially criminalize the practice and listed FGM as a second-degree felony. This all reads very well on paper, but statistics show that the FGM rates in Ghana still hover around 9 - 15 percent. How exactly does one legislate against a traditional practice that simply won’t die?

JOY NEWS’ Evans Mensah spoke to the head of the Women’s Dept. at the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs on the Newsnight Programme to find out why the legislation against FGM is ineffective and if there are any alternative ways of phasing out the practice.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (256)

The communitys traditional water supply, 7 or 8 streams of potable water, have either been dammed, dried-up or polluted by chemical spills due to mining activity in the area.

by Christian Baidoo with files from Kevin Hill

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (234)