CAPE COAST ORPHANAGE NEEDS FUNDING

 By Oliver Griffin

Orphanages in Cape Coast do amazing work  but it appears that some are better funded than others – Central Press decide to go and investigate the extent of the truth in the matter.  

Food preparation area at Human the Service Trust

Today, I visited two orphanages in the Cape Coast region, near Abura. Both have bright, happy and polite children. They also have good, hard-working and dedicated staff, but unfortunately that is where the similarities end. For you see, The New Life Children’s Home has one thing that the Human Service Trust Orphanage does not – money.  The difference in facilities is really quite startling. New Life has ample space with good kitchen, bathroom and dormitory facilities. The children have a large amount of space to play in and are frequently visited by volunteers from around the world, namely from Projects Abroad and Global Volunteer Projects.  It seems unfair that two orphanages, so close together, should be so different in the amount that they can offer the children who live there.



Half of the play area at Human Services Trust



I arrived at Human Services Trust not really knowing what to expect. One of the volunteers who showed me around, Sophie Manders, 21, had explained that the Orphanage was much better now than it had been last year. However, she went on to point out that there was still room for much needed improvement. Where the New Life home has a good kitchen and good sanitary conditions, at the Human Services Trust the children cook outside in the back yard, where an open sewer runs around the perimeter and out into the front, where they are allowed to play. Once again, this is where the differences between the two homes are clearest. The New Life home has a football pitch, volleyball net and pleasant surroundings, whereas the Human Services Trust has a rectangle that is around 12 metres by 3 metres, again with a sewer right next to it.





Football pitch at New Life

Is it fair that two such important facilities should be so utterly contrasting? Of course, the answer is no. One of the things that would help this situation is the fair distribution of volunteers between the two organisations. Not only do these volunteers provide much needed human resources, they also pay for their placement. Where New Life has so many volunteers it has to turn some away, Human Services Trust receives barely any. As the volunteers pay for the privilege to help, it means that Human Services Trust is not just missing out on physical help, but also on money that could help them to buy better equipment and food for the children. The point I’m trying to make is that these orphanages both do fantastic work and need to be funded. For New Life, the funding has to be consistent with what it’s receiving at the moment – just because this journalist has noted it is well equipped that does not mean it should receive any less, or not be entitled to more in the future. However, the situation at Human Services Trust needs to be addressed. Better equipment and funding is needed to make sure that the children not only have a happy childhood but also grow into adults capable of living on their own. Children will always be the future of every country, and it is each country’s responsibility that all are given as equal a chance as possible. It is not for lack of heart and effort that these orphanages differ, but purely because of the revenue that is available to them respectively – a tragic lottery for all the children involved.

Unfortunately, no one at either orphanage was available to comment.