Disability in Ghana

Disability in Ghana has a massive amount of stigma, children or people who are born disabled or deformed are assumed to be possessed by evil spirits.^[1][2]

Discrimination

Adults with mental illness may be put in prayer camps, in 2013 legislation prohibited the killing of newborn babies with disabilities, so called "spirit children".^{[3][4][5][6][7][8][9]}

Policy and legislation

Although Ghana signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in March 2007, the government took until August 2012 to ratify it.^[10]

An estimated five million Ghanaians have disabilities, of which 2.8 million have a mental disability, however only one percent of the country's health budget is earmarked for mental health services.^[10]

Sport

Ghana has sent a team to every Summer Paralympic Games since 2004, they have not won any medals yet.^[11]

References