Shelter for Abused Children appeals for government’s support

The Managing Director of Shelter for Abused Children and the Junior Girls Correctional Centre at Osu, Mrs Love-Grace Ahlijah, has appealed to the government to provide the facility with an infirmary and a basic school.

She said the Osu Remand Home, which served as a reform centre for remand children, as well as shelter for abused children, had three units; centre for remand girls, centre for remand boys and the shelter home.

She said the facility did not have any formal school and considering their operations, sometimes they were not able to quickly trace the relatives of the children, hence the need for a basic school to enable the children to have access to education while their relatives were being traced.

Mrs Ahlijah made the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on the sideline of a visit to the facility by members of the Rehabilitation-Integration International (RRI).

Donation

As part of the visit, the RRI donated items such as assorted drinks, bread, toiletries, detergents and sanitary pads; and an undisclosed amount of money.

The fact-finding visit was also to enable the RRI to identify the needs of the centre, as well as how to find means of collaboration with authorities to be able to get the right resources to help the centre.

Mrs Ahlijah said some of the challenges the facility was facing had to do with health care, feeding and funding.

She said a major challenge they faced was the delay in the release of remittance from government for the upkeep of the children.

She said due to financial constraints, they had to rely on the support of benevolent organisations periodically, and added that the challenges would worsen if those organisations did not respond to their calls.

Madam Matilda Baffour-Awuah, the Executive Director of RRI, also told the GNA that the RRI was made up of people who had retired from the public service and were committed to helping the underprivileged and vulnerable persons in the society to enable them to have better lives.

Training and skills development

Madam Baffour-Awuah said the NGO was ready to help with their training and skills development, health care and future resettlement through collaboration with both private and public agencies who shared RRI’s vision and mission.

The RRI ‘s vision is to assist the vulnerable and underprivileged in our communities to live better lives, while its mission is to work closely with other stakeholders to identify, rehabilitate and reintegrate the disadvantaged in communities.

Its objectives include offering technical and vocational skills training to target populations who may be unable to go through formal education in order to make them useful citizens. — GNA