Ave-Dzadzefe (Volta Region) -- Ninety Trokosi women from various shrines in the Ave Traditional Area of the Akatsi district in the Volta Region were on Tuesday liberated from servitude at an elaborate ceremony at Dzadzefe.

This was as a result of negotiations between the International Needs Ghana (ING), International Programme on the Elimination of Child labour (IPEC), the Akatsi District Trokosi Monitoring and Advocacy Committee and the Priests from the various shrines in the area.

Trokosi is a cultural practice, which prevails in shrines whereby, a person is subjected to ritual servitude for the atonement of offence committed by some other person who might be an ancestor or a living relative.

The Reverend Walter Pimpong, Executive Director of ING, a Non-governmental Organisation told a motley crowd of priests, opinion leaders, liberated Trokosi women and school pupils that the occasion was unique, because, apart from it being the last in the area, it was stressing the importance of educating the children of the women and the community at large.

He said ING, with other partners were working to make individuals, communities and policy makers realise that the Trokosi problem was not only a human rights issue, but a developmental issue, because girls sent to the shrines, as well as their children are denied the right to education, thus perpetrating poverty in the community.

Rev. Pimpong said: "we have reached a stage that requires that we all wake up to the reality that until we move away from looking at the Trokosi problem as a religious or cultural practice, we would be loosing the battle against poverty." He said the ING was trying also to assist women who are liberated from the shrines to be re-integrated into the society.

ING, he said, provides vocational training for liberated Trokosi women and their children as well as other women in the communities at the ING vocational training centre and that some of the 90 liberated women would benefit from the package. Some of the vocations include Batik, Tie and Dye making, soap manufacturing, confectioneries and powder making and sewing. The women, he said, would be supported after their training with equipment to enable them to utilise their skills.

Rev. Pimpong regretted that in spite of efforts to rid the country of the Trokosi problem, very enlightened people were kicking against it by supporting recalcitrant priests to perpetuate the gross human rights abuse problem. He asked: " With the passage of law banning the practice in Ghana, the question is how long can these priests continue their recalcitrant posture?" He appealed to law enforcement agencies to take steps to implement the law banning Trokosi to save women from the harmful cultural practice.

Parliament on 12 June 1993 passed the criminal code (Amendment Bill) making the social evil of customary servitude such as Trokosi a crime. Under the law, anyone who sends or receives at any place, any person or participants in any ritual commits an offence and would be liable to conviction of a prison term not less than three years.

Mrs. Sylvia Hinson-Ekong, the National Programme Manager of ILO/IPEC praised the priests for taking the bold initiative to release the women to give them a chance to lead a free life of their choice. She also commended them for releasing the children of the women to go to school, saying, " you have prevented many more innocent young girls who stood the risk of being sent to the shrines in future and given them a chance to go through proper childhood and to develop themselves".

Mrs Hinson-Ekong said the International Labour Organisation (ILO) with its programme on the elimination of child labour, funded the programme because it had been mandated by member countries, including Ghana, to abolish forced labour and slavery practice of any kind. Most children of Trokosi women have to slave with their mothers on farms.

She said in the past, liberation of Trokosis focused attention on the girls and women and neglected their children, most of whom do not go to school but slave with their mothers on farms.

At present, she said, about 605 of such children have been placed in schools with the collaboration of the Ghana Education Service at Akatsi and that with the present liberation ceremony an additional 200 children would be placed in school. She said the education of the children offers an escape from the poverty trap by increasing the probability of finding wage employment and attracting a higher wage once in employment.

The Akatsi District Chief Executive, Mr Nicholas Coffie Negble, whose speech was read by Mr Innocent Cudjoe , the District Information Officer, said it was not only the Trokosi system that violated human rights, as there were other customary practices which were dehumanising and incompatible with the norms and values of a "modern progressive African society" and have to be abolished or transformed.

He said it was the duty of all and sundry to get rid of customs and cultural practices, which are a draw back to the rich culture and traditions for the country's benefit. As part of the ceremony, 400 school children, some children of the Trokosi women and some from the community received school uniforms and educational materials.