Daniel’s Home for Children
 Pictures sent by Alice Twumwa Febr. 2003 1. Some of the children of the project:
Orphans Needs:
We need reading books, pens, pencils, erasers,
footballs, used clothings, medicines, footwears,
teddy bears, and donors to help put up a
a new home for them - the old home has been decleared unsafe as you can see from
the shown pictures!
Any little donnations will help save a
child's life. God will bless you, a cheerful giver!
2. house that has been decleared unsafe as you can see from this picture.
3. Mrs. Margaret Frimpong nurse who supports the Doctor to work on the sick children
4. Dr. Matthew Seyi who treats the children when they are sick
5. Entrance to the quarters where we were staying
6. Front view of the house where children were staying and you can see the state of the building
7. The planned laid down to use in building the home for the children in case we get donors and sponsors 8. Copy of the original certificate from the registrar General's department
ConstitutionDaniel’s Home for Children 1. BACKGROUND INFORMATION 1.1 NAME: Daniel’s Home for Children. [DHC] REG. NO. G 8,296 ADDRESS: P. O. BOX 1562, Sunyani. Ghana E- MAIL ADDRESS: kyerea@yahoo.com OFFICE LOCATION: Sunyani, opposite Cocoa House CONTACT PERSON: Daniel Adjei Kyereh JOB TITLE: Founder/ Executive Chairman/Project Supervisor 1.2 LEGAL STATUS: DW 8113 1.3 YEAR FORMED: 1998 1.4 STAFF STRUCTURE MALE FEMALE Paid: 0 Volunteers: 7 1.5 MANAGEMENT OF THE ORGANIZATION A five-member governing Board of Directors manages the organisation. The Board is responsible for project planning, implementation, and financial approval The final authority for the running of project wields in the Board of Directors. 1.6 NETWORK MEMBERSHIP Daniel’s Home for the Children is a member of the following network programs; Brong Ahafo Region Network of NGOs (BANGO) , Ghana Association of Private Organisation in Development (GAPVOD) Ghana coalition on the Rights of of the Child(GCRC) 1.7 ORGANISATION MISSION Our mission is to provide a home for the abandoned, feed the hungry and clothe the naked, thereby making life meaningful to the disadvantaged and the marginalised. As there is no accomodation right now, the children are dispersed among different families in the area. 2. ORGANOGRAM OF DHC Board of Directors Executive Director --------------------------------- Secretary --------------------------------- Programme Coordinator (1) Programme Manager (1) Finance/Administration Orphans & Street Children Health Women in Development Officer (1) Programme Officers (2) Programme Officer (1) Accounts Officer (1) Volunteers (4) 3. GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION The project is based in Brong-Ahafo Region at Sunyanii, the fifth largest city in Ghana, with an estimated population of 600,000-800,000 people. Sunyani is located at the transition zone between the northern and the southern regions of Ghana. The region shares boundary with the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire. Hitherto, the region had been spared the many problems associated with urban settings. Presently, however, the rural urban drift has suddenly resulted in child labour, child prostitution and juvenile crimes. As a result of its position of the city in Ghana, people from rural areas migrate from all directions to seek "better" conditions in the city. Currently, people from Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Niger and other neighbouring countries have come to settle for non-existing jobs. This trend has led to congestion and over crowding. Though, Sunyani being a business city with a lot of selling activity, it is not easy to find a job without capital or skill. Migrants, especially able-bodied youth get their hopes dashed as they find that life is after all no better in the urban centre. Food, clothing, housing, skills, jobs and money are hard to come by and a result many end up on the streets. Population growth and poverty has also led to a lot of families being unable to look after their children, resulting in a high rate of school drop outs. The youth then to engage in hawking- petty trading instead of being in- school. 4. PROJECT JUSTIFICATION Street Youth are young people aged 10-24 who live and work on the streets doing some form of menial jobs for socio-economic survival. They may or may not have parents. In cases where thye have parents, the street child rather works to carter for or support parents or siblings. Some of the activities they carry out include: labouring in farm lands, shoe-shine., porter (Kaya, Kaya) and occasionally prostitution, drug pushing, "hawking" and pick pocketing. In recent times, young people have been found to be engaged in armed robbery. It is now well documented that due to extreme poverty, population growth, urbanization and lack of equal opportunities for the weak and the poor many of the children in Ghana are turning out on the streets. It is estimated that 51% of all Street Youth are independent of their families in Ghana, and thus sleep outside homes. At age 10-24; in ratios 2/3 male and 1/3 female, street youth are struggling on their own for a secure future which eludes them. For such young people, sex for economic gain is the option. This has worsened their vulnerability as the quest for survival exposes them to health risks including AIDS/HIV. For the street children anything goes once it promises some form of monetary gain to meet the immediate needs of food, clothing and shelter. This situation is aggravated, as they have no employable skills. As much as 91% of them had dropped out of school at the Primary School Level. There is urgent need to protect them from health risks and provide them with training for self-employment. The young people really want to get out of the street but there is no help. As one young girl, aged 15, puts it: "If I get a job, leave the street, I will not get AIDS and life will be better". The increasing number of street children in Ghana has generated a lot of concern on the part of all who care about child welfare and development . Most of these children drop out of school, take to the streets to do odd jobs for survival, sleep roughly, are under nourished, lack of adequate health care and development facilities and are exposed to environmental or occupational hazards. Such children mature too quickly for their age, and emotional levels. They are also exposed to all sorts of undesirable influences, which often lead them to drug abuse, crime and teenage pregnancy. More importantly, street children miss educational opportunities, constructive ways of developing their talents and acquiring skills, well as meaningful ways of using leisure times and keeping out of trouble. Generally, the parents of street children are unemployed or financially poor. It is further observed that the jobs street children do now do not offer any opportunities for development of talents and skills. Street children are generally not interested in formal education, but in skill training and business that will bring monetary gains. Without some reasonable level of education the training of street children would be difficult. Current formal vocational training programmes are not attractive to street children because the duration of the programmes is too long and not accompanied by placement services. In addition, the curricula of such programmes are not necessarily relevant to industry. This social instability among street youth exposes them to HIV infection as a serious threat to their health. For them anything goes even if it has serious health risks. In October, 1998, the Minster for Education, analysing the Government’s policy in the sector said that the most disturbing aspect of the problem of school enrolment was the large proportion of children of school going age who did not attend school. Over 44% of children of school-going age are out of school. Data from Ministry of Education indicated that among the cohort entering primary school in 1997/99, 27.1% and 36.1% of boys and girls respectively dropped out by the last year of primary school. Furthermore, not only did more girls drop out, but they also did so at a faster rate than boys. National Service Secretariat, 1997 also indicated that the school drop out rate for girls was 70% by secondary school level and 83% by university level. In the wake of the AIDS epidemics there is the need to protect every one, but more so those who are more vulnerable, and more likely to contract HIV like street youth. In the light of the current reality of no cure for AIDS, the only tool for protection is education. To undertake education successfully, there is the need to use behaviour change techniques to reach the youth with information on sex and sexuality. Peer to peer education and other educational activities such audio-visual presentations, drama, games and competitions will be used. Educational materials, which are pictorial, simple and catchy, will also be used. To make youth play the needed role, there is the need to train them as volunteers and peer promoters, as this is important to sustain their interest and project. Sai, 1984, suggests that, there is a greater incidence of STD’s among 15-19 year olds than among other age group. An adolescent’s chances of early detection are particularly slim, partly because symptoms are sometimes similar to the abdominal pain and fever associated with various tropical diseases. They are also particularly slow to seek medical attention even where STD’s are suspected, and they tend to resort to self-medication. Delay in treatment of STD’s especially non-specific genital infections, often results in damage of the fallopian tubes, which leads to sterility. The need to support the vulnerable young people cannot be overemphasised. The clarion call is to provide a home for the homeless, feed the hungry and to clothe the naked. The best way to do this probably is to provide the street children and the orphans with skills so that by developing their human capabilities, they will be self-sufficient to carter for themselves. 5. PROPOSED INTERVENTIONS 5.1 Project Goal: To improve the health, social and economic conditions of street youth by equipping them basic skills and experience thereby empower them to be self-supporting. 5.2 Project Objectives: To reach a minimum of 5000 street youth annually, through peer-to-peer education and provision of health care for the prevention of HIV/AIDS and promotion of personal health, among them. To equip over 100 youth each year with vocation skills and training to enable them engage in meaningful vocation. To develop credit and loan schemes, and co-operatives to enable street youth to gain employment which will give them access to basic necessities of life hence enabling them to live meaningful life. To provide 500 street children with functional literacy to enable them read and write so as to improve on their capabilities to meet the challenges of life. 5.3 Outcomes * Street youth get off the streets * Street youth get jobs * Street youth are informed adequately on HIV/ AIDS/STDs. * Communities aware of problems of street youth and provide support. 5.4 Impact Avoidance of risky sexual behaviour leading to reduction in sexually transmitted diseases, teenage pregnancy and unsafe abortion cases Improved personal hygiene-daily washing of hands, clothing, body and dental care among the street youth. Street youth acquire a skill, get a job and make profit hence have access to improved housing conditions, nutrition and clothing. Streets youth united with families. Social vices committed by street children reduced. 5.5 Activities Training of volunteers Selected volunteers will be trained to provide education on STDs/HIV/AIDS, teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, abortion and personal hygiene to a cross section of street children. Review Meetings Half yearly, refresher courses will be run separately for volunteers and peer promoters each year. Educational Programmes A mixture of lectures, video show, picture materials and flash cards, role-plays; discussions and demonstrations will be used to educate street youth and communities on the causes, effects and prevention of streetism. Distribution of IEC materials IEC materials on the woes of street children will be distributed to the general public. This is meant to solicit support from the public to support the street child. It is also envisaged to facilitate good and responsible parenting amongst the populace. Audio-visual Shows Audio-video shows depicting the effects of streetism and its prevention will be screened on outreach to youth groups, churches, mosques and market places. Counselling A counselling centre will be established to provide counselling as well as emotional support to street children. A full-time counsellor will be hired to deal with cases referred to the centre. The centre will also be equipped with picture materials, audio-visuals, to facilitate the work of counselling and to respond to general health needs of street adolescents. Collaboration with other stakeholders Since the issue of streetism is a complex one, a multi-sectoral approach involving a strong collaboration with other stakeholders such as Department of Social Welfare, Ministry of Youth, Metro-Health Management Team and the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly is deemed essential. Vocation Skill Training It is said that if you give someone a fish you help him to get a day’s meal but if you teach him how to fish you help him to live forever. There some street you who have a strong inclination and interest to pursue a career in carpentry, shoe making, tailoring, hairdressing, brick and tile making, mechanics, electronics, farming and plumbing. There are also those who have demonstrated their business acumen and capacity for trading, but need a small credit to open up business. Providing Functional Literacy Statistics indicate that a predominant number of the street children are non-literates. A few however are semi-illiterate. To help alleviate their problems there is the need therefore to provide them some form of education. This, it is believed will help them make a meaningful life. They will also be equipped in managerial as well as financial management support services to enable them run their own business successfully, to raise income and their standard of living. Provision of Home for the Orphaned Children It is evident that some of the children on the street are without father or mother. They do not even know where they can trace their ancestry. For such children it is appropriate to carter for them in a home. Therefore it is necessary to set up and orphanage where these children can be housed and provide the necessitates of life. 6. MONITORINIG / EVALUATION The participants, collaborators, and the project staff shall carry out monitoring and evaluation at all levels of the project. This will be done periodically to assess progress made towards achievement of programme goals and objectives, both qualitatively and quantitatively. Regular monitoring will be used to ascertain whether programme activities are being implemented as planned. To this, a bi-weekly report from the project staff and the volunteers on their activities will be submitted to the Project Supervisor. The Supervisor will also submit project report once every month to the project implementation committee and quarterly report to the Donors. Evaluation will be done in two phases by DHC and its bodies thus, midterm evaluation will be done when the project is half way through, assessing whether what has been done could lead to the expected goal. A final evaluation will be carried out at the end of the project period by using the indicators set from the onset of the project to assess the attainment of the overall project goal. 7. SUSTAINABILITY The presence of collaborators within the targeted community will serve as an impetus to the sustainability of the project when the project funding comes to an end. Furthermore, the identifiable groups within the targeted community will also serve as rallying points for the project when the facilitators of the project pulls out. The assurances and commitments given by the collaborators with regards to free transport, resource persons and other project materials indicate the preparedness of the collaborators in carrying the project forward when funding ceases. This issue came to light during EPF advocacy meeting with DHMT and GES. |
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