This week I started my internship at Joy TV. The first day was very nerve-wracking for
me. The other students and I got on a bus together at 8 a.m. and one by one, we were all getting dropped off at our internships. I was the last stop and at this point, I was pretty nervous. I tend to overthink things and meeting new people is sometimes daunting for me.

When I first walked into the office where I would be working, they were playing Joy FM on the radio super loud so everyone could listen. I was told to just make myself comfortable. It was little confusing because after the radio segment everyone was just discussing the news passionately, and I didn’t know if I was expected to be doing anything. Coming to a new country and trying to catch up on the news and its politics is a lot of information to take in at once. I am much more in tune with the daily news now, but I still have a lot to learn about the government and politics here.

The discussions about the news happen twice daily here and I love how everyone is so passionate about their stories.

Eventually, I was called in by our editor and he ended up actually giving me an assignment. I was not expecting to be given a story on the first day. I had told him that I had experience with photography and video. He asked me to do a story that had been sent to him about a nine-month-old baby in need of heart surgery. I was happy to take this assignment and I
got in contact with the family. They aren’t currently in Accra but will be here next week and then I can start the story. I did get a story published already though! I did a quick story on a press statement that was sent about witch camps in Ghana. Northern Ghana is home to five alleged witch camps.

Belief in witchcraft is widespread all around Africa and people who are accused of witchcraft are often ostracized. In July of 2020, a 90-year old woman was lynched after being accused of being a witch. Lynchings are not uncommon when people are accused of being witches and women are also disproportionately affected. The witch camps are communities where the accused are sent to live in or flee to for their own safety. They have been ostracized from their own communities and they are scared of what people might do to them. These witch camps have caveats though.

The places are overseen by traditional priests and get aid from NGOs that have a stake in helping these people in the camps, and thereby sustaining the camps. Still, many of the accused are living in terrible conditions with no food provided and they may endure abuse, rape, and forced labor. The Sanneh Institute, which published the report, created the “Bring Our Mothers Home” petition to help bring these women home safely since many of them cannot easily leave. You can read my story on this topic here. 

I feel like the first week at a new job is always a little bit uncomfortable and confusing,
but add being in a different country, within a different culture and it gets a little bit harder. But I’ve been following people while they go on assignments and I seem to be finding my way and getting more and more comfortable every day!