[community activism]

		Volunteering with Frafraha Orphanage in Ghana
		by 'Eseta Schaaf

 

In the mid 1980’s as a young child in the island of Vava’u, I remember watching on television disturbing images of starving children in Africa. I saw huddles of small children with bony rib cages, heads and bellies bigger than the rest of their bodies, and flies swirling about their faces.

Fueled by drought and political instability, I later came to know this catastrophe as the 1984-1985 famine in Ethiopia which is estimated to have killed over one million people.
This experience sparked my interest in such examples of severe forms of humanitarian disasters. Throughout the years, I volunteered with organizations like Amnesty International advocating on behalf of prevalent human rights causes in sub-Saharan Africa. I learned about various children’s issues ranging from Child Soldiers, and Child Trafficking, to Child Labor, and AIDS Orphans amongst others.

In 2006, I had the opportunity to study abroad in Ghana, West Africa, so in particular I was interested in working with orphans. According to a publication by the Ghana Department of Social Welfare titled ‘Data and Information on Children’s Homes and Orphanages as of October, 2005,’ there are forty-seven reported orphanages in Ghana: forty-four private and three public. “However, we believe there are many more orphanages and foster homes not being reported to us,” says Mr. Adongo, a government official working with Child’s Rights for the Department of Social Welfare.

Other interesting findings from the publication included the most populated institution at 210 children located in the Ashanti Region. The smallest population totaled just five as in the Bethesda Baptist Orphanage in the Brongahafo Region. St. Joseph’s Orphanage in Jirapa established in March 1939 was the oldest.

Mr. Adongo said main sources of funding for the orphanages include The Department of Social Welfare, local churches, individual philanthropists, and organizations, foreign church donors from the U.S.A., U.K., Canada, Germany, Holland, Kuwait, and NGOs from Sweden.

For four months, January to May 2006, I volunteered weekly at the Frafraha Orpahange, also known as Christ Faith Foster Home near the town of Adenta, in the Accra Region, capital of Ghana. Frafraha Orphanage housed fifty permanent children—thirty-nine boys, eleven girls, at a time from the ages of two to nineteen. By age nineteen, a child should have completed JSS, Junior Secondary School, after which he/she should have acquired enough knowledge and life skills to fend for himself. Frafraha Orphanage admitted children from around the community through an application process including a medical exam. Based on the results, the children are permitted immediately or taken to the medical care if necessary.

UNICEF estimated about 106 million children under the age of fifteen will have lost one or both parents by 2010. Children without parental care is the term used to cover all children not living with their parents for whatever reason and in whatever circumstances (orphans, abandoned children, children removed from their family, unaccompanied minors…)

Idris, a child protection officer for UNICEF Accra estimated the number of orphans in Ghana today at about 230,000. “The main causations of children without parental care in Ghana are poverty and lack of, and poor access to services,” Idris said.Infant mortality rate (IMR) and under-five mortality rate (U5MR) have steadily declined in Ghana. However, regional disparities between the north and south of the country exist due to these causations of poverty and lack of, and poor access to services.

In Northern Ghana, IMR is twice as high and U5MR three times as high as in the capital region in the South. Malaria, acute respiratory infections, diarrhea, malnutrition and measles remain the five leading killer diseases of children. Frafraha Orphanage operates through donations from individuals, friends, groups, and from the community.
Odenwalden Heiden Mission—a German religious group is a key donor.

The foster home is pretty spacious at about 30,000 square feet. It has three dormitories: one for girls, one for younger boys and the third for teenage boys. Children are assigned by sex and age group to two or three bunk beds per room. A good sized kitchen and food storage, dining room, library with staff offices, and a study hall are included. There is a kindergarten, a primary school, and a JSS (Secondary School) where students from the community may attend as well. “This provides a wonderful opportunity for the foster children to interact with others and to feel a sense of belonging to a bigger community,” Director Kofi Aduboahene said. Older boys play soccer and younger ones run around the big field in the middle of the school buildings. Sometimes the younger children will tuck at my clothes, and take me to see the hens, and rabbits in the cages. Or show me to their beautiful gardens. Several large water storage tanks line outside near the clotheslines.

In addition, Christ Faith Foster Home has a colorful bus which Mr. Aduboahene bought after saving up two years’ worth of donations from Odenwalden Heiden Mission.
Aduboahene said he saw a great need for the children to interact socially with the outside community. “Because the children spend most of their time in the orphanage, I thought it healthy for them to take trips and excursions every so often,” Mr. Aduboahene said.

Plus the director, six other employees contribute to the smooth running of the foster home: Helen (cook), a driver, a handyman, and three ‘mothers’ Cecilia, Henrietta, and Rosemary. The ‘mothers’ sleep with the young children in their rooms and attend to their emotional needs.

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