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I’m going off to the Volta region of Ghana on the 20th June 2011 until 1st July 2011 volunteering for International Needs who are working to save victims of the fetish shrines. 

 Background: Ritual servitude is a practice where traditional religious shrines (popularly called 'fetish shrines' in Ghana) take human beings, usually young virgin girls in payment for services, or in religious atonement for alleged misdeeds of a family member—almost always a female. In Ghana and in Togo, it is practiced by the Ewe tribe in the Volta region, and in Benin it is practiced by the Fon. 

 

These shrine slaves serve the priests, elders and owners of a traditional religious shrine without remuneration and without their consent, although the consent of the family or clan may be involved. Those who practice ritual servitude usually feel that the girl is serving the god or gods of the shrine and is married to the gods of the shrine. 

If a girl runs away or dies, she must be replaced by another girl from the family. Some girls in ritual servitude are the third or fourth girl in their family suffering for the same crime, sometimes for something as trite as the loss of trivial property. It is still practiced in the Volta region in Ghana, in spite of being outlawed in 1998, and despite carrying a minimum three year prison sentence for conviction.  

 

 

As a volunteer a number of tasks will be carried out each day throughout the 2 weeks visti:

 Visit local villages to gain an understanding of their culture and interact with the fetish priests and villagers.

 Do a team work project that will benefit a rural community.

Interact with former Trokosi slaves at the Adidome Vocational Training Center and get a rare look at their future.

Visit one of the I.N. Network schools and meet the children.Daily tasks also involve skill development with the women and children.