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Gabe Joselow
Children Accused of Witchcraft Left Vulnerable in Central African Republic
Gabe Joselow
October 15, 2012
BANGUI, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC - Eleven-year-old Gracia sits in a chair that is two sizes too big for her, dangling her skinny legs and speaking with poise and wisdom about a life that has not been easy.
She was born poor; her parents died when she was very young. After that, people who knew her say she began to act erratically. She had strange dreams.
Gracia says the uncle she lived with accused her of being a witch.
"When I was with my family," she says, "they beat me and accused me of sorcery because I would go out at night. That's why they brought me here."
Gracia now lives at a center for vulnerable children outside of Bangui. She says she is treated like the others there. And unless she talks about it, there is no way to know her background, except maybe from the two small scars over her left eye - cuts from a razor blade that...