UTV news crew reported the case of about 60 children of the Ayensuano constituency living in Orphanage home managed by a certain visually-impaired man.
Due to the terrible living conditions of these children who are a mix of orphans and abandoned kids, Peacefmonline.com has therefore been following up on the appropriate authorities in the community to find out if they are privy to the details of the story and what they have been doing since the footage came out.
Last Friday, October 17, Peacefmonline.com reported that the children who deserve an equal share of the national cake have been living in very deplorable state. The bane of their lives is the part where all the 60 children spend each day in a miserable condition and cannot afford any basic amenities.
The children, who range from 4 months to about 13 years, all sleep on the floor inside a small unventilated room amidst mosquito bites and as for darkness in the room; it's the least of their worries.
They are also fed from one basin where they drink watery tea and a tin of milk poured in the basin to give it a slight taste. All the 60 children have to be content with just a shared loaf of bread and must not request a second.
The worst is that they are all bathed in one basin of foamed water with a single sponge and towel which several people have expressed concerns that it may spread diseases among the children.
The Orphans |
Peacefmonline.com therefore contacted the Member of Parliament (MP) of the Ayensuano constituency where these children live and he gave us a shocking version of the story.
The Ayensuano MP, Samuel Ayeh-Paye denied knowledge of the children staying in the orphanage home and according to him, the blind man managing the orphanage has rather been chopping off on the backs of the children.
HON. SAMUEL AYEH-PAYE
Hon. Samuel Ayeh-Paye |
He said whenever philanthropists and Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) donated to the orphanage; the man in charge of the children's welfare would plunder them and refuse to distribute items among them.
According to him, the blind man, proprietor of the orphanage, graduated from the Akropong School for the Blind and after completion, consulted with the queen mother of the community to start an orphanage.
A house was then handed over to him by the queen mother to operate but she later ejected him after realizing the man was using the kids to make capital gains, Hon. Ayeh-Paye indicated.
“When we have philanthropists and NGOs donate items to the orphanage, he doesn’t give the items to them...so the queen mother decided to set up a Committee to manage the orphanage. This guy said that he cannot work with the Committee.
“What he does is that when he’s receiving donations, he just goes from house to house taking some children, set up a tent and then he presents himself as somebody operating NGO and takes the money. And it tarnishes the image of the community…We’re not happy…and I think the Chief and the queen mother have decided to stop him from using the name of the community."
Nonetheless, the man would not heed the warning by the queen mother, the MP and other authorities not to operate the orphanage but whenever “he gets to know that people are coming to donate, then, he will go and pick the children and then gather them and say that; this is an orphanage. Then they will come and present items to them,” and he will give the children “some of the items and take the rest away."
“That is what we are not happy with,” he added.
Hon. Ayeh-Paye however expressed interest in anybody setting up an orphanage home in the community but "not the way he (the proprietor) is doing it now.”
He further refuted claims that there was confrontation between him and UTV crew during the time that the news crew was filing the report.
“I was at a funeral when somebody came to call…Before I even met them, the items had been donated and they sent them to the boy’s house,” hence stressing that there was no confrontation between him and the UTV crew.
“Before I saw the UTV people, the items had already been sent, donated. It had been presented to them. I saw them offloading the items to the proprietor’s house. So, I asked the UTV guy why are you giving donation to orphanage and you’re not giving it to the orphans but rather taking it to the man’s house. And they said they don’t have any place to keep them."
When asked what he as an MP has been doing for deprived children in the community, he clamorously stated that it’s not his duty to mobilize orphans.
“For now, I don’t do anything for them. For now, they have not been identified. For now, orphans live with their relatives. So, what do you expect me to do as an MP?”
However, some critics have taken the MP's revelations with a pinch of salt while others are still looking up to State authorities to come to the aid of the deprived children.
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Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana/ email address: ameyawpeacefmonline@gmail.com |
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