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Disability in Ghana

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Disability in Ghana has a massive amount of stigma, children or people who are born disabled or deformed are assumed to be possessed by evil spirits.[1][2]

Discrimination

Adults with mental illness may be put in prayer camps, in 2013 legislation prohibited the killing of newborn babies with disabilities, so called "spirit children".[3][4][5][6][7][8][9]

Policy and legislation

Although Ghana signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in March 2007, the government took until August 2012 to ratify it.[10]

An estimated five million Ghanaians have disabilities, of which 2.8 million have a mental disability, however only one percent of the country's health budget is earmarked for mental health services.[10]

Sport

Ghana has sent a team to every Summer Paralympic Games since 2004, they have not won any medals yet.[11]

References

  1. ^ "Tied to trees, given electric shocks and drowned in the river at birth: Is Ghana the worst country in the world to be disabled?". Daily Mail. Retrieved 2015-07-28.
  2. ^ "Ghana News - The Misrepresentation of Disability - Graphic Online". Graphic.com.gh. 2016-01-07. Retrieved 2016-03-08.
  3. ^ "Ghanaians ban 'spirit child' killing". BBC. Retrieved 2015-07-28.
  4. ^ "The country where disabled people are beaten and chained". BBC. Retrieved 2015-07-28.
  5. ^ "Spirit children of Ghana". Guardian. Retrieved 2015-05-29.
  6. ^ "Ghana Bans Killing of Children". Pacific. Retrieved 2015-05-29.
  7. ^ "Paul Apowida: From Ghanaian 'spirit boy' to UK soldier". BBC. Retrieved 2015-07-28.
  8. ^ "Telegraph Christmas Appeal: saving the cursed children of Ghana". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2015-07-28.
  9. ^ Vivian E D Ampadu. "The Depiction of Mental Illness in Nigerian and Ghanaian movies: A negative or positive impact on mental health awareness in Ghana?" (PDF). Disability-studies.leeds.ac.uk. Retrieved 2016-09-17.
  10. ^ a b "Ghana: Disability Rights Convention Ratified". Human Rights Watch. Retrieved 2015-07-28.
  11. ^ "Paralympic Results & Historical Records". Paralympic.org. Retrieved 2015-07-28.