Augusco students assist Lighthouse Children’s Home

Students of the Children’s Rights Club at the St. Augustine’s College in Cape Coast have donated assorted items worth about GH¢ 1,300 to The Lighthouse Children’s Home at Abura in the Cape Coast Metropolis.

The items included clothes, toilet rolls, bathing and washing soaps, food stuffs, exercise books, and other educational materials.

The students have also registered the children at the orphanage onto the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to enable them access health care at the hospital without paying anything for the next three years.

Presenting the items, the president of the Club, Master Fred Ellis, said their initiative was inspired by the desire to help improve the livelihood of needy children such that they could appreciate life better.

“We don’t have to look down on anyone here; it is not by anyone’s fault that they find themselves here. What we have to do is to give them the needed support and education such that they can also enjoy certain basic amenities that make life comfortable,” he said.

He explained that the Club existed to champion individual rights of children and ensure that those rights were protected through education.

Master Ellis charged the children to be mindful of the responsibilities that came with the rights and live accordingly, adding that, it was only when a children discharges their responsibilities well that they would be guaranteed of their rights.

He urged philanthropist and other cooperate institutions to offer needy children a helping hand as part of their corporate social responsibility.

Mr. John Yeboah Mensah, Administrator of the facility, expressed his gratitude to the students for their generous gesture and stated that the home needed more assistance both in cash and kind to be able to accommodate more needy children.

The Lighthouse Children’s Home was established in 2000 by some Canadian philanthropist to provide assistance to needy children to attain their full potentials in life through education. The home started with only 16 children but now has a population of 21 needy children.

Mr Mensah stated that the children upon attaining 18 years according to Social Welfare regulations, were expected to leave the Home to join their extended family members, but the Home would continue to give some extended support to them.

He indicated that about 15 people from the Home were pursuing various courses at the Senior High school, Polytechnics and nursing with one medical student at the University of Cape Coast Medical School.