14 Oil city magazine |
Father’ s Home Care Ministries has marked its 12th anniversary with the opening of a purpose-built home for young children and their caregivers in Anto on the road to Accra. The Christian NGO’ s first home opened in Butumagyebu in January 2001, initially offering shelter to eight children. Over the years it has grown significantly taking in over 100 children and providing them with a loving and secure home. For some of those their stay at Father’ s Home was relatively brief but others have stayed for many years due to their personal situations. Reintegration in children’ s own family settings is always pursued but sometimes it is simply not possible. As the range of ages of residents widened so their needs diversified. In response the decision was taken to build a centre in Anto especially for younger children, with the original residence transforming into a Youth Development Centre catering for around 20 older residents in post-school training or the early stages of work. The vision for the Anto site is that it will become a village for younger children consisting of several family houses and a primary school on the 2.8 hectare block of land. The aim is to welcome 100 children in the future. The first step towards the village has been the completion of a two-storey building with four family flats. Two young couples and 13 children, aged between two and twelve, are now living at the Home; each couple forming a family unit with six or seven of the children. The children are still driven to the schools they attended while living in Butumagyebu to provide consistency in their education and so they can keep their friends. Those at Father’ s Home( the name refers to the fatherhood of God) come from different backgrounds, but what they have in |
common is that they have all suffered through abandonment, rejection, abuse and exploitation. Each has been identified and brought to Father’ s Home’ s attention by individuals anxious for their well-being, friends, members of their families or the social services. Their personal situations have been investigated, studied and discussed and the final decision to take in a child is never reached without consultation with all the persons concerned and the consent of the municipal authorities. These children now have a home. They are learning to live with others, to live in accordance with certain rules, to show that they respect others and themselves, to take heart, to feel that they are cherished. They are struggling to find an identity and have great need of affection. Little by little, however, they allow themselves the right to be children, in quite simple terms. Staff members are committed and generous young people who are willing to share their lives with the children and act as fathers and mothers to them. The presence and involvement of responsible persons, who fill a parental role in relation to the children, is an extremely important factor. They are there to protect, educate and support each of the children in his or her personal development. The establishment of Father’ s Home Ministries was the initiative of Francis Kweku Jackson with the support of generous benefactors. The NGO is run by a dedicated board, of which he is a member, responsible for formulating policies, rules, regulations and guidelines for implementation by staff. The Department of Social Welfare assessed the NGO in 2011 and issued it with a national license to run the home due to the high standards of its work. |
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