End Witchcraft Branding and Stigmatization Campaign (#EWBS)

Comfort, Hope and Goodness, three girls aged 13, 5 and 3 respectively are siblings who live with their grandmother since losing both of their parents in 2016. In February 2018 they were branded witches by their grandmother and accused of being responsible for her ill health. To coerce a confession out of them, she invited a neighbor who stuck a machete in the fire until it was red hot and then used it to brand their backs.

Their story is no different from that of many other children in Southern Nigeria who have been maimed, wounded and sometimes killed by relatives – including parents – and blamed for whatever misfortune befell the family or a close relative. In 2018, we have documented over 200 such cases in Cross River State alone.

To combat this menace, we have decided to carry out a far reaching advocacy campaign tagged End Witchcraft Banding and Stigmatization Campaign (#EWBS) across the state, but we need your help to raise the required funds. We have identified three (3) key areas that need to be addressed urgently.

1. Review of the existing child rights law to include branding children as witches as a punishable offense
2. Train police officers and other first respondents on how to support children who are at risk
3. Raise awareness and educate the general public on the impact this practice has on their communities and the entire state.

We are determined to end this menace and build a society that is safe, and conducive for children. We need your support to make this possible. Kindly follow this link to find out more about our campaign on the Global Giving platform to make a donation. Please click on this link to make a donation.

We appreciate your support and look forward to working together to make Cross River State safe for Children.

Please follow this links to read Marc Ellison’s Branded and Beaten published by the BBC and How Nigeria’s fear of child ‘witchcraft’ ruins young lives published by Aljazeera English. This articles focus on our some of the rescue initiative we have carried out at Basic Rights Counsel Initiative (BRCI).