Octogenarian urges government to rescue street children

An 80-year-old philanthropist, Madam Regina Arhinful has called on government to rescue children from the streets and put them to school in order to grow to become responsible citizens.

The octogenarian lamented that most of these children roam the streets of the big cities and towns aimlessly and later grow up into irresponsible adults indulging in all manner of anti-social activities.

Madam Arhinful who is domiciled in the United States made the call when she celebrated her 80th birthday with some sixty orphans the Countryside orphanage camp at Bawdwiase in the Central Region.

As part of her birthday celebration, she donated 6 bags of rice, 1 bag of corn, two large containers of cooking oil, 50 bags of sachet water, canned tomatoes, candies, educational materials, toiletries and used clothes for the upkeep of the orphans.

A document, titled ‘Census on Street Children in the Greater Accra Region’, revealed that there were 61,492 street children in the Greater Accra Region as at 2011 and in 2012, an additional 24,000 street children were also identified in the Greater Accra Region alone.

It is against this backdrop that Madam Arhinful is passionate about the plight of these homeless children, who roam the streets and in the night sleep in front of peoples shops and on pavements exposing themselves to all the dangers one can think of.



She urged the government to pay more attention to the street children and give them proper support, reiterating that the children of today are the future of tomorrow.

“Government must pay attention to street children because they are going to build the world in the near future, it’s unfortunate the children are sleeping at the way side, they don’t get food to eat”, she stated.

Child protection experts estimate that the total number of street children in the Greater Accra Region alone is around 90,000.

The Octogenarian cum philanthropist said “I feel very, very sad, if I have the chance to talk to my president, I will advise him to pay great attention to the street children”.

A daughter of Madam Arhinful, Irene Winifred Arhinful-Mensah appealed to government to consider abolishing taxes on goods imported for orphanages to encourage philanthropists’ to provide more support.