KAYAYEI ABUSE ON THE INCREASE

 

Bushira Mamudu receiving treatment at the Mamobi Polyclinic

A 21 year old head potter (Kayayei), Bushira Mamudu, has become the latest victim of hate crime constantly suffered by disadvantaged girls who migrate to urban centers to engage in menial jobs to support their families.

An unidentified lady is suspected to have hit the skull of Bushira with a sharp instrument after a misunderstanding ensued between the two at a shelter for disadvantaged girls in Mamobi, Accra.

Witnessed revealed that the middle aged suspect quickly bolted away after inflicting the life threatening wound on poor Bushira.

A native of Gambaga in the Northern Region and mother of one, Bushira, who was putting up at a shelter for Kayayeis provided by the Pamela Bridgewater Project, was quickly rushed to the Mamobi Polyclinic, where a team of medics led by Dr. Prince Daitey administered prompt treatment to stop blood gushing from her punctured skull.

The founder of Kunata Voluntary Organisation (KVO), the NGO that operates the Bridgewater Project, Mr. Yahaya Ahassan, who rushed the victim to the Mamobi Polyclinic, revealed that there is a growing trend of physical and verbal abuses meted out to head potters.

Speaking in an interview, he said that insults directed at the vulnerable Kayayeis on daily basis are becoming rampant and are unacceptable.

He said that the continue attacks and beatings of these vulnerable girls who represent the disadvantaged segment of our populace is a big concern and “an indictment on Ghanaians as a people who uphold the tenants of human rights”.

He pointed out that the constitution explicitly guarantees the rights of every Ghanaian, and this obviously include Kayayeis, to stay and work in any part of the country they so wish without let or hindrance.

Mr. Alhassan described the treatment of Kayayeis who migrate from the northern parts of Ghana to the south in search of jobs, as the country’s version of xenophobia. According to him Accra and Kumasi have been the home of all manner of people and he asked rhetorically that how many people can say that their family have not migrated from one location to another.

He revealed that the Pamela Bridgewater Projects regularly undertakes outreach programs to educate the girls on how to prevent or report abuses meted out to them, however, there should be more programs on a national scale to sensitize the Kayayeis.

The K.V.O provides future and welfare to Kayayeis in Ghana through training, advocacy, protection and research.