Orphanage appeals for support

Agogo (E/R), Jan. 17, GNA- Ms Sophia Owusu, Director of Providence Children Home, a private orphanage at Agogo in the Yilo Krobo district, on Wednesday appealed to Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's) and philanthropists to help with the running of the home. The home, which started about a year ago, is catering for over 50 orphans, some of whom are suffering from various ailments that needed urgent medical attention.

Making the appeal when GNA visited the place, Ms Owusu said five of the children below 10 years had been diagnosed with hernia and need to undergo a surgical operation at the Koforidua Regional hospital. She said apart from the five who had been identified, most of the children in the home were suffering from Kwashiorkor due to poor care from their previous homes and needed medical care. According to the Director, the home had also adopted an insane woman and her four children, who had been neglected by her family and suffering from childbirth complications, which also needed a surgical operation to correct. She said although the Na tional Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) had come to register all the children, the insurance was not ready and the children had to undergo the surgical operation, which had been estimated at about 10 million cedis.

The home is also sponsoring 10 adolescents who had just completed BECE, but could not continue their education due to financial constraints to be trained in trade apprenticeship and other sustainable projects to make them self reliant in the near future. According to Madam Owusu, she was moved by the plight of the orphaned children when she visited the area a few years ago, and decided to set up the home to give them care and love that they needed to grow up well.

She appealed to marriage couples to consider their children and resolve to stay in the marriages, because most of the children in the home came there as a result of broken marriages, leading to the death of their mothers and the father's whereabouts unknown. As a measure to curtail divorce cases in the area, the home plans to set up a counselling unit. Ms Owusu said the home would also sponsor about 50 school drop-outs this year to prevent unwanted pregnancies that resulted in poor care of children.