{"id":6577,"date":"2011-11-20T19:10:47","date_gmt":"2011-11-20T19:10:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/?p=6577"},"modified":"2011-11-20T19:15:50","modified_gmt":"2011-11-20T19:15:50","slug":"paul-apowida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/paul-apowida\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Apowida"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cross-Posted on the Corner:<\/a><\/p>\n

As some regular readers may understand, I\u2019m possibly not the best person around here to comment on religion, but, as I\u2019ve mentioned before, the belief by some ecumenical sorts that all expressions of faith are, as expressions of \u201cspirituality\u201d (whatever that may mean), equally worthy of respect, is not an idea that should go unchallenged. <\/p>\n

This <\/a>story from the Daily Telegraph<\/em> is an extreme case, but it makes that point. It is also a thoroughly good story in every sense of the word. <\/p>\n

At just after 1.30pm on Thursday, Paul Apowida, a soldier with 1st Battalion The Rifles, marched on to the parade ground at Beachley Barracks, near Chepstow, to receive a campaign medal for his service in Afghanistan. Fresh off the plane from Helmand province where, as point man, he had led his fellow riflemen across some of the country\u2019s most treacherous terrain, Apowida was wearing his Army fatigues and a green beret, proudly displaying the cap badge of the battalion. Not required \u2013 after a six-month-long tour \u2013 were three other things that had kept him safe: body armour, his rosary beads and his Bible.
\n\u201cI took my rosary with me every time I went out on patrol,\u201d he says when we met after the ceremony. \u201cMy rosary, my Bible and a picture of Jesus in my helmet. And, every time, at the end of a patrol, I thanked God for bringing me and my mates back safely.\u201d
\nThere are many brave soldiers serving in Afghanistan, but few have a background as unusual as Apowida\u2019s. Born in a remote village in the semi-arid scrubland of northern Ghana, Apowida\u2019s father died before he was born. When his mother died shortly after giving birth, the baby was considered cursed, deemed a \u201cspirit child\u201d \u2013 a child possessed by evil spirits who would bring misfortune on the entire community \u2013 and condemned to death by a soothsayer who instructed Apowida\u2019s stepmother to feed him poisonous herbs. The belief in \u201cspirit children\u201d has a long, dark history in Ghana and, although there are no official statistics, is thought to have led to thousands of deaths.
\nBut Apowida was rescued by a Catholic nun, Sister Jane Naaglosegme, who had been posted to his village to start a care home for \u201cspirit children\u201d. She nursed him back to health \u2013 he had already swallowed the herbs, but they had not proved fatal \u2013 and, eventually, after two further attempts on Apowida\u2019s life, she sent him to a boarding school 800 miles away, in Tema, just outside the capital, Accra.
\nNot a natural scholar, he struggled in his classes but then went to art college, where he flourished.It was at this time, also, that he became the beneficiary of a new charity, AfriKids, set up in 2002 by a young, idealistic woman in her early twenties called Georgie Cohen (now Georgie Fienberg). Fienberg, who had worked with Sister Jane during a gap year in West Africa, had got to know Apowida on her regular trips back to Ghana and funded him through art college. In his last year of college, Apowida said that his mother had come to him in a dream and told him he should join the British Army. Britain \u2013 in the form of AfriKids \u2013 had done so much for him, she told him, that he should join to show his gratitude.
\nFienberg agreed to become his legal guardian, and he moved to London, where he attended sessions run by British Military Fitness. He joined The Rifles in 2008.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, thank you<\/em> Paul Apowida. And thank you Sister Naaglosegme, Georgie Fienberg — and Afrikids. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Georgie Feinberg & Paul Apowida<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cross-Posted on the Corner: As some regular readers may understand, I\u2019m possibly not the best person around here to comment on religion, but, as I\u2019ve mentioned before, the belief by some ecumenical sorts that all expressions of faith are, as … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[9,711],"tags":[250],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6577"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6577"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6589,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6577\/revisions\/6589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}