“… She Is Incompetent And Clueless On Child Rights
Issues”- Says Child Rights Activist
A Child Rights activist in Germany, Kofi
Asante, has called for the immediate sack of the Gender Minister, Cynthia
Morrison, over her comments on the recent Anas investigation “Torture
Home”.
“This
is crass incompetence, I was shocked when I read her interview,(read full
interview on https://jesuisanas.org/resources/) how can the Minister be
protecting the orphanages by defending them? “What did she mean when she said
has been going there under disguise when the children were being abused?
I see a clear attempt at cover up by the Minister. If it was here (in Europe)
she would not be in the office,” Kofi Asante indicated.
Asante explained that since the incident nothing has come out from the Ministry
quizzing “What kind of country is
this where the Minister does not even issue a press release to update Ghanaians
on the situation? The Minister should be ashamed of herself.”
Asante has been consulting with local child activists in Ghana who asked not to
be named because of security reasons, and added more information: “The Minister seems completely unaware of
the Care Reform Initiative that was set up in 2006 directly under her ministry
to apply the Children’s Act and the Legislative instrument by making
orphanages “a last resort” for children. Widespread research worldwide
has proven that children do better when they are raised in families rather than
in orphanages, which are after all a colonial import. Therefore since 2006,
Ghana has been phasing out orphanages and replacing them with foster care based
on the Ghanaian extended family system. Instead of asking for the jailing of the
“Echoing Homes “ director and staff and launching a full investigation, the
Minister seems focused on defending orphanages, and even asking for more to be
set up. That’s a direct conflict with the law of the land”
Funnily enough, this same minister on May 13th 2019, launched several key
Care Reform Initiative documents among which the “National Standards for
Residential Homes in Ghana”, the “Standard
Operating Procedures for Inspection, Licensing and Monitoring for Residential
Homes in Ghana” and “Case Management Standard Operating Procedures for Children
in need of Care and Protection”.
In her replies to Tiger, the minister makes no
reference to these manuals which spell out the procedures professionally and in
detail, with a view to closing down orphanages and settling the children with
extended family. One has to ask oneself if Mrs. Morrison has even read the
official state manuals she launched.
From what the minister says to Tiger it seems that she is unaware that the
homes cannot be licensed to operate without an initial inspection. “We’ll come and look at the place and then
you can start”, which is what the Minister said, is not an accurate
description for a process that by law involves staff screening and a full
formal evaluation against national standards. She does not mention the
gazetting procedures at all and seems unaware of what is actually involved in
licensing an orphanage. The minister seems not to understand that to “have the desire to help those people,” as she puts it, is not enough: staff have to be qualified, social workers have
to be involved before children can just be picked up and put somewhere.
Mr Asante pointed out that the Minister has not defined which
children who in her words “need
help”, and yet in Ghana there are clear criteria to define which children “need
help”: they need to be assessed by professional social workers and
then the parents can sometimes be supported to care for their own
children at home. Removing a child from family and community needs to be
a last resort, a vital fact that Mr Asante is asking himself if the minister is
even aware of.
It seems that for the minister “going round to see” means
visits in disguise, whereas there is a clear protocol in the documents she
herself launched six weeks ago, for at least two quarterly visits per annum
that are announced and a total of four per annum that involve filling
out extensive forms all of which are detailed in the above publications.
Mr Asante pointed out that, “The most disturbing this fact in all of this that
the Minister doesn’t seem to be aware that worldwide, orphanages are considered
to be harmful to children, and the Care Reform Initiative is not just about
closing down the “bad” ones. The policy of the Government of Ghana is
about transitioning away from orphanages altogether and towards a policy based
on family. So a phrase like “but unfortunately we have a lot of people who need
help, so we need even more homes to cater for people” is in direct
contradiction to The Children’s Act. The various Legislative instruments, the
Regulations and Handbooks the Minister herself launched and the conventions the
GOG has with USAID. KidsOurFuture by the EU and then Unicef among other
government partners.
Mr Asante said “A phrase like this
one uttered by the Minister” So, if you bring these children together and we
get people to help you, all you need is to love the children in return and then
give them a good life” is enough to make any social worker throw up their
hands. Love is not enough. You need proper long term financing, food, education
and medicines, specialized care, and training and knowledge and
monitoring. Children lives are at stake. We not should separate children
from their families, and encouraging the setup of home in this manner is just
irresponsible. All children have family, and according to research
published by Unicef over 80% of the children in orphanages in Ghana have family
they would live with if the families were supported.
“Throughout the interview, the Minister seems completely unaware that
orphanages are never a solution and the Convention on the Rights of the
Child, and Unicef have variously insisted that Ghana hurry up in applying
the Care Reform Initiative, and basically eradicate orphanages from the system.
She seems not to be unaware of the international research that points to the
fact that children should be helped to live with family and that the orphanages
don’t work. The fact that she donated to Bawjiase, an orphanage that Anas has
exposed as a violent and cruel, saw the issues around accountability there with
her own eyes, and that Bawjiase continues to operate under her watch is
incomprehensible.”
Mr Asante then called for her immediate resignation and replacement by someone
who knows the policies in place and is aware of the Convention of the Rights of
the Child and the requests that the international community has made to Ghana
in terms of the responsibility our Government has to it vulnerable children. He
called, furthermore, for the jailing of the perpetrators of these crimes
at Echoing Hills and Bawjiase orphanages.
Stay tuned
