The founder of a human rights organization, BAF-Ghana International Human Rights Services, has hinted of the group’s intention to start a campaign against what it described as the illegal burial of people who go into coma, a practice that is rapidly becoming common in Ghana.
BAF-Ghana says its research in Ghana reveals that many people do not know when a sick person is in and out of coma, and that has often led to so many people being buried alive.
BAF-Ghana which is working with the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), the police and the department of births and deaths to ensure the provision of grave certificates for dead people.
The founder of the Belgium based human rights group, Ms Salamatu Ouedraogo, in an exclusive interview with Zaa News during her visit to Tamale said the organization wants quality data for Ghanaians both at home and abroad.
According to her, a lot of people in Ghana are usually declared dead by people who have no medical knowledge to pronounce a sick person dead and that needs to stop. “Giving birth to a child is not an easy job and express burial system in Ghana should be stopped,” she said.
BAF-Ghana is also championing a cause for Ghanaians to sign a written a document it calls “Will Before Burial’’ which will stipulate the numbers of hours a deceased person should be kept before burial. This is to avert arguments among relatives of the deceased.
In 2011, BAF-Ghana conducted research in Ghana on immigration problems among Ghanaians, food nutrition and how Ghanaian health professionals treat patients at the various hospitals, which pointed to several loopholes in terms of service delivery to Ghanaians, especially the poor.
Nurses and doctors who fail to take their duties seriously will not have a good relationship with BAF-Ghana International Human Rights Service. Reports of unfair treatment of the less privilege people in most hospitals needs to stop, the head of the organization insisted.
According to Ms Ouedrago because of the huge number of Ghanaian immigrants in the Europe, the Ghanaian consulates cannot attend to everyone especially when their traveling documents are seized on their way to Europe either by sea or by road.
“What such immigrants to need to do now is to register with us and we will issue an international card for you. We also prepare documents for the consulates to ease the difficulties of those who found themselves illegally in Europe,” Ms Quedrago explained.
She said BAF-Ghana international operates with beginners Aid foundation which was established in 2004. Meanwhile, Ms Quedrago’s outfit was able to provide material things as well as capital in the form of loans to fifty women who worked with BAF-Ghana international in Accra to assist them in their daily businesses.
Ms Quedrago was also able to established an orphanage school in Accra in 2007 which aims at giving two years education to orphans and before handing them over to government, and in Tamale, the organization also opened a football club called First Soccer Academy located at Sagnarigu in the Sagnarigu district of the northern region. Similar projects has been established in 2010 in Burkina Faso.
“We stand to defend the rights of the vulnerable in the various communities and to protect people who feel they are left out.” She observed that BAF- Ghana International Human Rights Service operates outside politics, “We do not make politics our priority,” she added.
