14 orphanages operating illegally in Eastern Region – Social Welfare Dep’t

Mr Tetteh Quarshie, Regional officer of the Social Welfare Department in Koforidua, has said that out of the 15 orphanages operating in the Eastern Region only one has been certified to operate.

He said the situation was worrying since most of the orphanages were operating below the standards required adding that the department was taking steps to close down the defaulting ones.

He said some of the orphanages or homes operate under the guise of Christian charities to attract children into the so called orphanages for their personal gains.

Ghana News Agency (GNA) investigations revealed that some of the Christian based organizations often made false representations to people in the rural communities during evangelisation programmes including the claim that they had a centre to care for their children free of charge and then present those children as orphans to solicit for public support.

Mr Quarshie said the Department had embarked on a programme to reunite some of the children with their original parents and through fostering where families and communities would be educated and supported to accept some of those children into their homes.

He said the Social Welfare Department in future would certify orphanages and homes in specialized categories where abandoned, orphaned and needy children would be sent to facilitate the achievement of the fostering and adoption systems.

Mr Quarshie said the welfare of the children in those orphanages were of prime interest and that the department was being careful with the closure of the orphanages that were operating below standards to ensure that the children were not sent back to the streets.

He appealed to individuals and communities to accept to foster children from the orphanages because research had proved that homes were the best places for the holistic development of children.

Source: GNA