The Ministry for Gender, Children and Social Protection has temporarily shut down the Countryside Children’s Home pending investigation after the Anas Aremeyaw Anas’ exposé on the orphanage.
[contextly_sidebar id=”lj54H8WeI78U5piPWMOruVHfxKb3uRi8″]Investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas in his latest exposé revealed how inmates at the orphanage in Bawjiase were maltreated.
In some instances, the children were forced to fast for days even when there is abundance of food.
The home had been turned into a business venture by its founder, Mrs Emma Boafo Yeboah, affectionately referred to as Auntie Emma or Mummy.
A Deputy Minister at the Gender Ministry, John Ackon at a press briefing on Tuesday indicated that a three-member committee was set up by the Ministry to come up with a plan for the removal of the children to a more conducive environment as well as profile them.
The committee has successfully completed the profiling of the children and they have been rescued to two safe homes on January 23, 2015.
In all, 41 orphans were removed by the Department of Social Welfare and the Police CID.
After the successful profiling of the 41 children, their details are being analyzed.
“For 0-5 years, we have five of them; 6 to 10 years, we have eight of them; 11 to 15 years we have 13 of them; 15 to 20 years, we have 13 of them and 20+ we have one and the total is 41,” explained Mr. Ackon.
It also came to light that there are three categories of children in the Countryside Home.
“There is the orphanage which has the orphans and basic school boarders at the home and day students at the JHS and they are all in the same facility. All these categories add up to 140 children,” he explained.
He added that “after profiling, the following actions could be taken. Children whose families can be traced will be sent to their homes and those without families will be housed in orphanages.”
Mr. Ackon pointed out that government condemns the inhumane treatments which were meted out to children in Countryside Children’s Welfare Home.
Meanwhile, the Acting Coordinator of the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service, ACP Habiba Twumasi Sarpong has told Citi News, the owners and persons shown in the video have been invited by the Police to assist in investigations.
“They have been invited to assist in investigations. So far, we have invited a lot of them and anybody that is found culpable will be prosecuted at the end of it. That is the assurance but for now, the case is still under investigation,” she said.
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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