The Ningo-Prampram District Office of the Social Welfare and Community Development at the weekend called for the strengthening of the extended family system in the various communities to provide care for orphans and vulnerable children.
Madam Augustina Nartey, Ningo-Prampram District Director of Social Welfare and Community Development, who made the call, said the Ghanaian extended family values were very important in the care of orphans and must be strengthened instead of being abandoned.
Madam Nartey was speaking at a day’s workshop for stakeholders on the alternative and kinship care of vulnerable children.
The workshop was organized by the Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) Connexions, Ghana, in collaboration with the Department of Social Welfare and Community Development under the Ningo-Prampram District Assembly (NiPDA).
She explained that integrating orphans and vulnerable children into the family instead of putting them in an orphanage would provide them with the advantage of having normal family lives, which is an essential role in a child’s upbringing.
She said after integrating such children into the family care context, stakeholders such as churches and mosques, government agencies, traditional authorities, NGOs, opinion leaders, among others on their part were to provide the needed support to the caregivers in the families to cater for their welfare.
She noted that in 2006, a committee on the Rights of Children in a report on Ghana recommended that state parties should provide active support for a significant increase in the availability of the family type of alternative care.
“In view of this, a Care Reform Initiative (CRI) was launched in 2007 with the goal of de-emphasizing the over-reliance on care systems for vulnerable children based on institutions and move towards a range of integrated family and community-based child care services,” she said.
Madam Nartey stated that since the inception of the CRI, over 85 orphanages were closed down as most of them were not following the right procedure for running the homes.
She said about 80 per cent of the children were in the orphanages because their parents were poor and not because they were orphans.
The Reverend David Kwodwo Ofosuhene, President of OVC Connexions Ghana, explained that they were not against the operations of Orphanage homes as it contributed to childcare, stressing, however, it was important to keep children connected in a family-centred society.
Rev. Ofosuhene reiterated that keeping children connected in a family-centred society allows vulnerable and orphaned children to grow up, staying connected to a family home in the best interest of the child.
He said the workshop was to equip stakeholders with the necessary information and awareness to understand the importance of de-institutionalizing of care and promoting kinship care.
Mr David M. Tuglo, Deputy Director for the Ningo-Prampram District Assembly, also emphasized the need for extended family members to embrace such children as members of their families.
Mr Tuglo also urged participants to facilitate open dialogue within their communities on kinship care to empower families while promoting children concerns in their vicinities.
Source: GNA
