Churches urged to invest in orphan care

Nana Akua Okoh, a Team member of the Trinity Hope Centre (THC), a Christian Charitable Organisation has appealed to philanthropists, benevolent organisations, and other religious bodies to invest in orphan care.

She said churches and believers at large must accept the responsibility of protecting orphans and vulnerable children in the community with a place of love, hope and a sense of belonging within the Christian environment.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on the sidelines of the second graduation ceremony of the Hope Academy School, she said there are many references in the scripture which pointed to the fact that churches had a role to play in orphan care as it is “the heartbeat of God”.

She said there is the need to sensitise church members and the public at large to partake in orphan care ministry because children must feel loved and catered for particularly when they have lost their parents

The Hope Centre, an establishment of the Trinity Baptist Church (TBC) is a development centre for orphans, the underprivileged and disadvantaged children at Ayensudu and its surrounding communities in the Komenda-Edna-Eguafo-Abrem(KEEA) Municipality of the Central Region.

Established in 2008 under the leadership of the Founder and Leader, Reverend Kingsley Appiagyei, the centre provides family life, quality education and emotional support for children who through no fault of theirs found themselves in such difficult situations.

The centre currently has two homes housing three resident families, a nursery and primary school blocks, a clinic, a fully furnished computer lab, a well stuffed library, a church, a recreation centre and an administrative block.

Ms Okoh said in pursuance of the visionary’s mission of alleviating poverty in the deprived communities in the country through education, a school was attached to the Hope Centre in 2014 to intensify its vision of training the children with Christian moral values and providing them with quality education and care.

She said children from the surrounding communities enjoyed about 65 per cent sponsorship and discounts at the school to ensure that every school going child in the communities had access to quality education.

The Centre had strictly worked and would continue to work with the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection and the Social Welfare in the Central Region in the selection of orphans to ensure that true orphans are admitted into the Centre.

Mr Jones Owusu Yeboah, a media liaison Officer for the TBC said the church is poised to make the Hope Centre one of the best in the country and is constantly reviewing its systems to achieve an immediate lasting change in the lives of the orphans.

He assured Ghanaians of the Church’s commitment to turn the centre into a place that provides hope for needy persons from across the country and had adopted Dutch Komenda, a community in the District to provide reliefs such as nutrition, education, medical assistance and emotional support for the needs of residents.

He said Rev Appiagyei spends close to $15,000 annually in supporting the education of deprived children from the primary up to the tertiary level in the country.

Ms Roberta Esi Arthur, Administrator of the Hope Academy School told the GNA that the Centre currently houses 23 resident orphans and needy children, but runs various programmes that cater for other children in the KEEA Municipality

It also supports more than 250 children in the community with the assistance of Compassion International.

“Our core mission at THC is to develop support programmes that will restore hope to those marginalised and less privileged within our communities,” she said.

She said the Centre upholds strong Christian values, high quality education, pastoral care, discipline, building confident children and vibrant learning environment as it core values in bringing up the needy children.