A January 2009 study by the Social Welfare Department – responsible for children’s welfare and supervising orphanages – showed that up to 90 percent of the estimated 4,500 children in orphanages in Ghana are not orphans and 140 of the 148 orphanages around the country are un-licensed, said the department’s assistant director Helena Obeng Asamoah.
Accra-based child protection specialist with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Eric Okrah told IRIN: “Running an orphanage in Ghana has become a business enterprise, a highly lucrative and profitable venture....Children’s welfare at these orphanages has become secondary to the profit motive.”
After researching financing in several Ghanaian orphanages, Ghanaian non-profit Child Rights International (CRI) Bright Apiah surmised that as little as 30 percent of funds received are spent on child care.
Many of the children are not orphans at all...yet if profit is the motive for running an orphanage, one needs to find a supply of "orphans" to use for fundraising.
Across the region some orphanage staff target deprived, rural communities and “exploit the poverty and ignorance of parents” by promising them money and offering to fund their children’s education, CRI’s Apiah said.
Some parents unwittingly sign documents giving up their right to legal custody of their child, said the Ghana Social Welfare Department’s Asamoah; many of those signing are illiterate.
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Vindicator ago
@kestrel9: I'm giving this an "IMPORTANT" flair. That is a huge upsurge in orphanages. Something doesn't add up. This needs further investigation.
kestrel9 ago
This May 2009 article explains part of the problem: http://www.irinnews.org/report/84582/west-africa-protecting-children-orphan-dealers http://archive.is/SdsRO
Protecting children from orphan-dealers
Many of the children are not orphans at all...yet if profit is the motive for running an orphanage, one needs to find a supply of "orphans" to use for fundraising.