Minister charges orphanages to operate within acceptable standards

…to ensure proper care and education of children

By Samuel Agbewode

The Minister of Women and Children’s Affairs, Mrs. Juliana Azumah-Mensah, has called on orphanages in the country to operate within acceptable levels that would ensure that the managers and personnel of the orphanages take good care of children under their care, to help promote effective training of such children.

Mrs. Azumah-Mensah said the government was trying to discourage the institutionalisation of children, but would rather encourage orphans to stay with their relatives, who would be given the needed assistance, to enable them look after the children, as well as to promote effective relationships with other children in society.

The Minister made the call when he presented food items, including rice, cooking oil, beans and detergents to an orphanage at Adaklu-Goefe in the Adaklu-Anyigbe District, Friends Orphanage, as part of the government’s support to the home.

Mrs. Azumah- Mensah noted that it was unfortunate that some orphanages had failed over the years to operate within acceptable practices of the law, and cautioned the managers of such homes to change their attitudes towards the care and protection of children under their care, since any negative practices engaged in at their homes would not be tolerated.

She used the occasion to commend the management of Friends Orphanage for its efforts to bring up children, noting that her outfit would support any orphanage working hard to ensure the safety of children under their care, not only by feeding and clothing them, but also taking care of their educational needs.

Mrs. Azumah-Mensah stressed that orphanages ought to understand that the education of children under their care was vital in the total effort of bringing up children, because the success of every nation, largely depended on the level of education of the future leaders, who she observed, should not be denied such a basic and the necessary aspect of life.

She urged traditional rulers to help ensure that managers of orphanages in the country operate within acceptable levels, noting that this, the chiefs could do, by playing an oversight role, including the regular monitoring of orphanages in their respective areas, to ensure that strict adherence to child wellbeing and education were not compromised.

Receiving the items, the Manageress of Friends Orphanage, Madam Ethel Danso, thanked the Minister and the government for the support, and pledged that the items would be put to the benefit of the children, and urged individuals and organisations to emulate the kind gesture.

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