No mercy for the “cripple”

By William Antwi Asiedu


THE huge social safety net inherent in the extended family system which, in the past, saved a lot of poor Ghanaians from the streets, is in shreds; and we do not need a first class professor in social science to tell us that. 

The pressures of modernity seem to have pushed many Ghanaians to spend more money on what I call ‘machines of comfort,’ such as washing machines and luxury cars, rather than helping to cater for poor extended family members.

This and many other factors have left us with a large army of street kids whose future careers could be armed robbery, prostitution, drug addiction and vandalism (apologies to my fellow V-mates of the Great Commonwealth Hall of the University of Ghana, Legon, popularly and affectionately called VANDALS).

So it came to pass that on the night of Tuesday, September 1, my fellow V-mate and celebrated investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, broadcast a sad story of the children of the Osu Children’s Home in Accra, after seven months of undercover investigations at Ghana’s leading facility for disadvantaged children.

Lack of space will not permit me to present all the details of Anas’ story but it is important to recap the aspect of it that exposed cases of alleged physical abuse, squalid living conditions, stealing and caregiver negligence that have resulted in the deaths of many children within the home.

The investigation also uncovered some disturbing aspects of life at the Osu Remand Home and the Osu Home School and found out that the two institutions, together with the main Home, subjected children under their care to  daily doses of whipping and other physical punishments that adversely affected the victims’ physical, emotional and academic development.

After seeing the story on television and reading it on the Internet, one thing that I had always feared was confirmed – Ghana’s social welfare system is DEAD!

If you do not believe me, wait till you find yourself on the wrong side of the law and be thrown into jail. 

Again when you are admitted to a public health facility you will also feel the death of Ghana’s welfare system. I also know that the disadvantaged children in many of the country’s Homes know that the welfare system died long before they were born; and for the street kids the demise of the system stares them in face day by day, night by night! 

The picture may be blurred but this is not the time to play the blame game or pretend that there are no social challenges in Ghana. I believe that some politicians will jump to their feet and catalogue a number of things that their parties have done in the past or are doing now to improve the welfare of the Ghanaian poor but the fact remains that, ‘Notin dey happen’ as my Nigerian friend Oluwale will say.

What pushed the so-called industrialised nations to develop was that they faced realities and created the environment for their people to live comfortably, no matter the situation. Why do you think they are always inventing things for us to buy. 

Now the reality is that the social welfare enjoyed under the extended family system is long gone and the earlier we, as a country, began to embrace the services of professional social workers the better.

A social worker is an individual whose aim is to help those people within society who have – for whatever reasons – an inability or a difficulty in dealing with issues or crises that see them excluded from society. Social workers can carry out their duties in a variety of different locations and settings ranging from a client’s home, their school, hospital or other public sector organisations. 

The ‘modern’ Ghanaian does not seem to want to do anything with young offenders, individuals with learning difficulties, young people with behavioural difficulties, drug and alcohol addicts, pupils with high levels of truancy, elderly individuals, individuals with mental health issues, orphans and abandoned children etc.

And this is where the professional social worker comes in to offer practical and emotional support to anyone in any of the aforementioned categories and to do so objectively and without prejudice. This is very important as many look to social workers as a means of alleviating their concerns without burdening loved ones or family members and also without feeling embarrassed or concerned about the information they impart. 

The country’s universities are training social workers but the sad thing is that many of them travel abroad to work in society’s that appreciate their services. This means that were are spending our meagre resources to train professionals for rich countries such as the UK and US.

University study is required in order to qualify as a social worker. This can either be in the form of a degree course in social work or as a post-graduate course once an initial degree has been obtained.

It is not enough to have caregivers looking after young people at places such as the Osu Children’s Home. These ‘carers’ are people who provide lowly paid care by looking after ill, frail or disabled people." The caregivers require constant supervision from professional social workers and it was obvious from the Anas story that there were not enough at the Osu Children’s Home.

Wicked ‘mothers’ at Osu Children’s Home

Posing as a visiting Pastor under the name Reverend Abednego Akpabli alias ‘Onyameneba’, from the [non-existent] Christ of Jah Church, the award-winning reporter, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, obtained secret video footage on what he described as the daily ills and injustices suffered by children within the Osu Children’s Home. 

The reporter also posed as a rich female philanthropist from Mali, under the name Hajia Balkisu, to unravel the mystery behind a series of deaths that had hit the home in recent times. “She” even bought a coffin for the burial of one of the dead kids who was about to receive a pauper’s burial from the home. 

Ei Anas, ‘Charlie’ you are a champion. With your hard body and harder buttocks you managed to outwit the officials at the Osu Home and easily passed as a woman! Well done my brother. Hmmm, I say in this country we are not serious about social welfare koraaaaa. The Social Welfare Minister, Mr E. T Mensah, should cut his aged ‘punk’ hairstyle and rolled up his sleeves because there is a lot of work to do. 

Oil money for NHIS premium

You see what these politicians do? The oil money has not come and yet they have started sharing it – some for NHIS, some for this, some for that! Why don’t we wait for the oil money to start flowing in waa waa waa before making promises. We promise too much and raise people’s hopes too high and later turn them into foot soldiers, who terrorise everybody because the politicians’ promises are not fulfilled or its implementation is delayed.

Well, I hear the government is considering the option of using part of the country’s expected oil revenue for the intended one-time premium payment of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). Who said that? Agh! They said it was the Vice-President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, who announced it.

For this announcement, I declare the Vice Pee, Ghana’s MOST PROMISING VICE PRESIDENT ever.