Gender Ministry to shut down some children’s homes

The Gender Ministry has hinted on plans to close down some children’s homes in the country.

According to the National Director at the Department of Social Welfare, Dr. Comfort Asare, this is to sanitize the system because of the numerous children’s homes established in the country.

Though the purpose of children’s home is to provide temporary care for children until their families are found for claiming, she is concerned about the rate at which numerous children’s homes are springing up in recent times. She noted that the Ministry will not give registration to new persons establishing children’s homes to house street children.

“The Ministry of Gender has the responsibility to provide homes and families for the vulnerable, orphans and the missing children that come to us for care and because we know family is the best institution for every human being, we don’t even want to keep them in our institutions so we introduced the deinstitutionalization programme where we are looking for foster parents and for permanent families for some children whose relatives we are unable to trace,”

“This year, we are going to continue closing down the children’s homes. It is not the best place for children. So those of us who are interested in establishing children’s homes, we are saying that we will not give registration to any new homes that are springing up and the old ones too, we want to cut the number down. We want to cut down the number because the number is very high for a country like Ghana,” she said during the International Day of Families celebration held in Accra.

Dr. Asare urged parents to stop abusing their children.

She further called on parents who live with children with disabilities to care for them to feel associated and loved.