Social Welfare to close down orphanages
The Department of Social Welfare has begun processes to close down some orphanages across the country.
According to the director of the department, Reverend Dr Mrs Comfort Asare, children in most of the homes do not receive the needed care and attention, and that tends to affect their growth and development.
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Currently, she said the department had identified 37 homes out of the over 130 centres operating in different parts of the country, and was in the process of closing down more in the coming months.
She also said that the department was not going to register new child care centres.
“These children must be brought back to their homes for their parents or family members to cater for them properly. They need care, assistance and love. We should not push them out there to be abused by unscrupulous people. We should care for those with disabilities as well,” she emphasised.
Dr Mrs Asare was speaking at this year’s International Day of the Family ceremony in Accra on Friday, May 14.
International Day of the Family
The theme for this year’s celebration was “maintaining our roots: strengthening families in a changing world.”
The occasion brought together stakeholders, including parents, teachers and children. Discussions were held on the need for parents and extended family members to work together to build ties and bonds in order not to break down the family system.
This year, the celebration was geared towards providing families and parents with tools to adopt towards integrating a healthy digital cultural capital within their daily family life.
There were also discussions on how parents could cater for their children in order not to become a burden on society. The day has been celebrated on May 15 every year since 1994.
The global function is usually organised by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs Family of the United Nations.
This year, due to the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus, the day will be marked in different parts of the world online.
Orphanages
Dr Mrs Asare explained that ordinarily children’s homes were supposed to give some form of care to children for a short period of time, unlike the current situation where children grew up in the homes.
“Apart from some of these orphanages not operating according to laid down rules, the children are not supposed to stay in those places for a very long time.
“Researches have shown that when children stay in the homes for long without the needed care, it affects their intelligence quotient and development.
“There have been instances where some of the owners of the homes register their own children as orphans just to operate and receive items from the public. This is not fair,” she said.
The director also said currently, there were over 4,000 children living on the streets, but had started taking many of them off the streets.
She also called on parents to desist from pushing their children or relatives onto the streets to beg for alms, emphasising that it sent wrong signals about Ghana to the rest of the world.