SOCIAL WELFARE INVESTIGATES OPERATIONS OF APOWA ORPHANAGE (BACK PAGE)

ANOTHER incident of child abuse at an orphanage has been uncovered, this time, at Apowa in the Ahanta West District in the Western Region.
Officials from the Department of Social Welfare in the region alleged that the Orphan Cray Home had become a centre from where the proprietor and her accomplices recruited children and gave them out as domestic servants and child labourers.
They said before they were given out, the inmates often went to school without food and were given 20Gp for feeding until they returned home late afternoon and sometimes made to fast and pray for the whole day “to seek the face of God”.
The only source of water to the inmates was described as too salty for human consumption.
The proprietor, identified as Ms Vivian Young, is allegedly trafficking children and misapplying funds meant for the upkeep of the children for her personal gain.
This has warranted an investigation by the Western Regional Command of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service into the operations of the orphanage.
The Commander of DOVVSU, Mrs Cecilia Zorwunu, confirmed to the Daily Graphic that investigations were underway and appealed to members of the public who had information about the activities of the orphanage to assist.
Two persons, identified only as Ama Maxx and Obolo, are being sought for by the police to help locate their children who were sent to the orphanage but were unlawfully given out for adoption at Anaji in Takoradi by the home.
Mrs Zorwunu said a parent who had gone to retrieve her child from the house where he had been sent by the orphanage as a domestic servant, was asked to pay GH¢1,500 being the expenses incurred on the child at the orphanage.
She said because the parent could not raise the money, her child was still with her “adopted” parents.
A source close to the orphanage told the Daily Graphic that children were admitted to the orphanage and given out for adoption without proper procedures.
On the sale of children, the source said some women allegedly feigned to be pregnant and moved in to stay at the orphanage for months during which period the home managed to get them babies for a fee.
The orphanage, which was originally registered as an NGO, is said to have no mandate to operate as an orphanage.