Ghana struggles to protect children harmed by prayer camp practices

Children like Hafiz Abdallah, who have spent years in prayer camps without proper diagnosis or treatment, highlight the urgent need for reform amid reports of human rights abuses and limited mental health services in Ghana.

Hafiz Abdallah was eight when he was taken to Nyinbonya, a prayer camp in Paga, near Ghana’s border with Burkina Faso. Eight years later, he is still there, and his mother says he has never had a clinical diagnosis. Her account lays bare a wider reality in Ghana, where families often turn first to churches, prayer camps or traditional healers when a child shows distressing or unexplained behaviour.

In Hafiz’s case, his mother said the problems began after the death of his twin brother. He became destructive, stole a neighbour’s chicken and sometimes attacked her. Unable to understand what was happening, she tried herbal remedies and spent what little money she had. She says the camp offered some sense of safety because, when his behaviour became difficult to manage, he could be restrained so he would not wander off or come to harm. But that security has come at a heavy cost: a child who entered the facility at eight has spent half his life there without the assessment or treatment his family says they could not access.

Conditions inside Nyinbonya, as described in the report, were troubling. Children and adults were seen walking barefoot, some appeared malnourished or detached from their surroundings, and a child believed to be no more than 10 was being held tightly by an adult. Staff were observed pinching and slapping patients in an apparent attempt to control them, while several people were seen naked. Access to the camp was closely guarded, underscoring how difficult it can be for outsiders to see what happens inside these facilities.

The story of Sarah Adjei shows how easily trauma can be mistaken for spiritual affliction. She was seven when she was sexually assaulted by a family acquaintance, then developed severe distress, waking at night screaming and sweating. Her parents took her to church rather than to a mental-health professional because they believed she had a spiritual problem. She spent years in prayer and deliverance, and says she now believes she should have received medical help much earlier.

Psychiatrists and mental-health advocates say Sarah’s experience is far from unusual. Abigail Harding of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital said unusual behaviour in Ghana is often understood as witchcraft, a curse or possession rather than as illness. She argued that prayer and medicine do not need to be in conflict, but warned that treatment must never come at the expense of human rights or dignity. Harding said practices such as chaining, isolation and forced fasting can deepen trauma and delay effective care.

Access remains one of the biggest barriers. Mary Adwoa Adjei, Sarah’s mother, said she initially thought her daughter’s condition was spiritual, but she also did not know where a mental-health clinic was or how many existed in the country. Josephine Stiles Darko, deputy head of communications at Ghana’s Mental Health Authority, said there are only a little over 80 psychiatrists in Ghana, most of them based in Accra. She said the answer is to push services closer to communities through primary care, district-level training and outreach clinics, so families are not forced to travel long distances in search of help.

The legal framework exists, at least on paper. Ghana’s Mental Health Act, 2012, sets out protections for people with mental-health conditions, including children, and requires humane treatment in the least restrictive setting possible. It also regulates restraint and creates Mental Health Visiting Committees to inspect facilities, receive complaints and check conditions, including at spiritual healing centres. But Darko acknowledged that these committees are not yet in place everywhere they should be, and the Mental Health Authority has not provided a clear count of registered prayer camps or spiritual centres under oversight.

Experts say the real solution is not to push faith aside, but to bring it into a safer relationship with medicine. Emmanuel Asampong, a University of Ghana lecturer, said people will continue to seek help from prayer camps and traditional providers whether the state approves or not, so the better approach is to train and involve them in identifying warning signs and referring patients. Harding pointed to efforts such as the M-HEALER project, which trains traditionalists and prayer-centre operators, while Lady Ann Essuman, a lawyer, said families also need clearer information about their legal options. For children like Hafiz, the question is no longer simply why parents go to prayer camps. It is whether Ghana can build a system that reaches them before childhood becomes a long stay behind closed gates.