SOS Children's Villages' activities in the country
The Ghanaian social worker Mercy A. Busia was moved by the sad fate of children being cast out by the families for reasons of traditional beliefs and she decided to become active for these children. By chance, during a study visit to Norway in 1967/68, Mercy Busia got to know about the work of SOS Children's Villages. She then contacted Hermann Gmeiner, the founder of the SOS Children's Villages, in Austria and asked him to build an SOS Children's Village in Ghana. As a consequence contacts were established between SOS-Kinderdorf International and different committed persons in Ghana, amongst others also the Honorary Consul of Austria in Ghana Ingeborg Nicol.
In July 1970 the SOS Children's Village Association of Ghana was founded. One year later SOS Children's Villages was given a large plot of land in Tema, about 35 km from the capital, Accra, in order to build an SOS Children's Village and various ancillary facilities. Thus, SOS Children's Village Tema was built between 1972 and May 1974. First it consisted of five family houses. The first 20 children were able to move in with four SOS Children's Village mothers and Alice Appea, a committed social worker, as the first village director in June 1974.
Over the years, SOS Children's Village Tema has been constantly enlarged. Today it has 15 family houses and numerous ancillary facilities, mostly schools and training facilities. On one hand these are educational amenities for the SOS Children's Village children, but on the other hand about 1,100 students from the neighbourhood attend the SOS Kindergarten, the SOS Hermann Gmeiner Primary and Secondary Schools and the SOS Vocational Training Centre as well as the SOS Hermann Gmeiner International College in Tema. This college which is a senior secondary school was set up in 1990 and is attended by talented SOS youths from all over Africa as well as by external students from Ghana. The students graduate with an internationally recognised baccalaureate and are then able to study at almost any university in the world. In 1986, when the first children had outgrown the SOS Children's Village Tema, the first SOS Youth Facilities (housing) were set up and head start programmes were started.
Because of the great need for care facilities for orphaned and abandoned children, a second SOS Children's Village was built in Ghana between 1989 and 1992. It is located in the rural area of Asiakwa, approximately 100 km northeast of the capital Accra. Starting in 2004 SOS Children's Villages Ghana in collaboration with other NGOs took various steps to assist the needy population, especially persons affected by HIV/Aids. The aim of these family strengthening programmes is to enable children who are at risk of losing the care of their family to grow within a caring family environment. To achieve this, SOS Children’s Villages Ghana works directly with families and communities to empower them to effectively protect and care for their children, in cooperation with local authorities and other service providers. Some of the activities are assistance with foodstuff, medical drugs, school fees, creation of self-help projects.
Due to the big demand for long-term family based care the SOS Children’s Village Asiakwa was extended by four family houses.
In autumn 2007 heavy rainfalls caused terrible flooding in the north of Ghana. SOS Children’s Villages Ghana initiated an emergency relief programme and supported the affected families with food items, roof sheets and cement.
In the beginning, SOS Children’s Villages Ghana was only active in the south of the country but also in other parts of the country the number of abandoned children is very high. Kumasi – situated in the centre of Ghana – is an important commercial town and thus attracts many internal migrants. The result is a tremendous growth of population, increasing poverty and abandoned children. This was the reason why SOS Children’s Villages Ghana decided to build a third SOS Children’s Village on this site.
At present there are two SOS Children's Villages in Ghana, two SOS Youth Facilities, two SOS Kindergartens, five SOS Hermann Gmeiner Schools, one SOS Vocational Training Centre, four SOS Social Centres and two SOS Medical Centres. One SOS Children’s Village is under construction and another one is planned.
Website of SOS Children's Villages Ghana
(available in English)