Since the president’s announcement of the measures in containing the spread of covid-19 in Ghana, many have bemoaned the economic hardship that has accompanied it.
But for the vulnerable in society whose daily survival is hinged on the benevolence of others, without any intervention, the repercussions could be unbearable.
For most children’s homes and orphanages, daily survival is dependent on donations from the public. In the Cape Coast metropolis for instance, students and religious groups are constant donors and support to these homes as a number of celebrations drive them there.
Currently, resources from these regular donors have ceased while occasional ones are not forth coming either and they dread what will befall them if things should remain as they are. One of the homes visited by ATLFM’s Victoria Adonu had received just 50.00 Cedis cash donation in the month of May.
Pastor Derrick Fletcher, the founder of the new life Residential Home and School says before the pandemic, the home could sometimes have enough food items to even share with the needy in the community but that is not the case now.
Donations have dwindled while no funds are raised from his school which is currently not functioning for obvious reasons. That notwithstanding, he says they are able to make ends meet.
Sandra Ofosu, the administrator at the Human Service Trust, a residential home at Abura sharing her experience with ATLFMNEWS said “before the pandemic, some UCC students volunteered to be here with us. Often times, we had foreign volunteers also coming in to assist with taking care of the children but now due to the pandemic, even though people come here to assist, the number has reduced drastically.”
She added that financial assistance to the orphanage has also gone down saying “now most people do not go to work because of the virus.”
On ensuring healthy protocols to prevent spread of the virus, Miss Sandra Ofosu said, regular health education and sensitization are held to equip the people with the right form of information on the virus in order to stay healthy.
The Department of Social Welfare and Community Development is mandated to take the lead role of integrating the disadvantaged, vulnerable, persons with disabilities and the excluded into mainstream society. But this mandate does not include funding for these residential homes.
Okine Mustapha Aryee, the Cape Coast Metro director of Social Welfare and Community Development told ATL FMNEWS that the department has limited the number of vulnerable people they send to these orphanage homes as a way of limiting the potential spread of the virus and again to reduce the financial cost of managing them.”
Mr Aryee however indicated that the department among other interventions has resorted to the use of social media to seek for support for its work. Currently, there is no institution that has notified us of any benevolent gesture yet but we will continue to explore other areas”. He therefore appealed to the public to extend a helping hand to these facilities
Meanwhile, Social Welfare has also instructed that these homes observe the covid-19 protocols but none of these facilities ATLFMNEWS visited had benefitted from the donations of PPE made by some groups.
Aside the donation of the regular items, operators of these homes are also calling for some PPE and possibly infrared thermometers to equip them to protect themselves against the COVID-19.
Source: Victoria Adonu/ATL FMNEWS
