User:Carlylewin/Spirit children

Spirit children refer to children with disabilities that are believed to have either an evil or good spirit. It is also referred to as "chichuru" or "kinkiriko." If their spirit is good, the child can grow up and live a happy life; however, most of the spirit children are believed to be evil.

Spirit children have large heads and teeth or a beard at the time of birth. These children spy on his or her parents, and disappears from them.

According to Navrongo Health Centre, this phenomenon is responsible for 3% of the deaths of the children in Western Africa.

If a women is sick after giving birth and It is not believed that she will become better, her newborn child is a spirit child.

The child's father calls upon a soothsayer. The soothsayer performs a series a sacrifices around the burial of the compound.

Discussing the deceased spirit is extremely discouraged as it is believed that it will awaken malevolent spirits. May of the children are not given a name before they are are killed.

15% of all the deaths of infants under the age of three was because of the belief that they were believed to pocess evil spirits.

They then perform a "sending away" of the child.

Activist Organizations
Anas Aremeyaw Anas, an investigative journalist in Ghana, researched spirit children for three months. After his documentary, Spirit Child, was published, two nonprofit organizations dedicated time and resources to preventing the practice.

AfriKids
Since the beginning of the group in 2002, the AfriKids has 58 communities have ended this practice. An estimated 243 deaths are believed to have been prevented. n the Upper East region, AfriKids has helped establish 60 child rights clubs. These clubs through schools in each communities.

Media Attention
The Famished Road written by Ben Okri brought the spirit children to the global eye