Ghana: Closed Orphanage 2015 Countryside Children's Welfare Home, Open in 2017 for Exploitation again ( pizzagate )

submitted by kestrel9

Ghana: Countryside Children's Welfare Home http://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/hell-at-bawjiase-home-children-reduced-to-sex-objects-starved-and-enslaved.html

The Countryside Children’s Welfare Home was established with six children in Winneba in the Central Region in 1981 and relocated to Bawjiase two years later.

February 2015

Hell at Bawjiase home ; Children reduced to sex objects, starved and enslaved

It is a sad tale of poor feeding and forced fasting, open sale of donated items, abuse and neglect, wanton pregnancy and abortion and lack of proper health care.

In his latest undercover investigations at the orphanage, the ace investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, and his team, after living in the home for six months, uncovered a home that has been turned into a business venture by its Founder, Mrs Emma Boafo Yeboah, affectionately referred to as Auntie Emma or Mummy in the home. (Undercover video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-vEmlFhhsc )

At the home, the children are made to pose for photo opportunities to receive items from donors, only to be starved behind the walls of the orphanage.

After the food items donated to the Countryside Children’s Welfare Home have been sold to the public, the children are made to live on a cup of gari, which is poured into their shirts (video 18:05), and uncooked noodles.

Through their own ingenuity, some of the children ground pepper and tomatoes, which they eat with the gari for lunch. For supper, the meal is just a plate of soup, without fish or meat, shared by four children.

Even worse, some days are declared fasting days (video 26:35) and the children are given mango and water at the end of the fast. While the children go hungry in the midst of abundance , Auntie Emma has been accused by some employees of the orphanage of using the home as a money-making machine.

“One day, someone will come to know the truth and it will be dangerous,” an aggrieved employee said.

The Orphanage has allowed many to virtue signal for their religious celebrity or just celebrity statue over the years:

The Countryside Home has, over the years, benefited from the generosity of individuals and organisations, including Prophet T.B. Joshua of the Synagogue Church of All Nations; the Metropolitan Archbishop of Accra, the Most Rev Charles Gabriel Palmer-Buckle; a former Black Stars player, John Mensah; Becca, a musician, and the Kumasi Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr Kojo Bonsu.

Key buildings at the orphanage were put up by institutions such as Regimanuel Gray Estates, the World Health Organisation, Balast Nedam Company Limited and Wirbelwind, a German organisation.

Nobody really checks the integrity of the places they support, they just assume that a religious based charity is worthwhile (or do they look the other way while asking their congregations to raise money and donate goods?)

In rather horrifying revelations, students of the Countryside Basic School, which is the educational wing of the home, told the story of how girls were made to undergo abortion after they had been impregnated by their male schoolmates.

A son of Aunty Emma’s was accused of impregnating one of the girls, while a cobbler from Bawjiase was said to have gone to the school to sleep with some of the girls and impregnate them, after which the pregnancies were aborted. (one of the girls lost a kidney video 25:54) (A son of Aunty Emma's, Sylvester, is caught on tape slapping and bullying one of the kids https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa8FXyd71mM) )

One girl was alleged to have undergone three abortions. (video 24:34) In one instance, she was said to have aborted the pregnancy with the help of the female teachers who were referred to as ‘mothers’ in the home.

There were also alleged instances of homosexuality involving some male workers and male students of the home. “At that time sex was like water. Abortion is rampant and more so because just one drug can do it,” a student told the investigating team.

Kids washing bath house cement floors with stones and other punishments (Chores: video 31:10....it's Aunty Emma's son, Sylvester punishing the kids...slapping/use of canes and sticks to beat the kids).

Some Parents of so called "orphans" pay for their kids to be in school there (note that some orphanages take donations that should go towards school, yet ften the funds, originally designated for classrooms and dormitories for orphans, are used to convert the orphanage into a lucrative private school.) Aunty Emma is doesn't bother paying the teachers regularly (video 38:15)

A rather intriguing twist to the moving tale at the orphanage was the issue of some parents paying for their children to live there. Such children are then added to the number of inmates (resident orphans) to swell it. (in the video 15:32, one woman claims, "...the orphans here are not even ten, not up to five...let's admit that these kids are needy.)

Although those children are referred to as ‘boarders’ internally, to outsiders they are presented as orphans. Following the investigations, about 40 of the children in the home have been transferred and are now temporarily being sheltered at the Osu Children’s Home in Accra.

As if all that so far wasn't enough the kids medical care in the orphanage was given by Dr. High School Diploma...

High school graduate works as medical doctor  (Video 44:23)

Health care at the home is administered by a senior high school graduate who describes himself as Dr Isaac Nsiebi.

The rescue was done by the Department of Social Welfare, in collaboration with the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service.

http://citifmonline.com/2015/03/12/12-children-return-to-closed-down-countryside-orphanage/

Sending Children back already? Of course they are!

About 12 children who were withdrawn from the Countryside Children’s Welfare Home at Bawjiase in the Central Region following the revelations of abuse of the children have been sent back to the home. (supposedly to "study")

The orphanage was closed down by the Department of Social Welfare a few months ago as a result of the revelations by investigative journalist Anas Arimeyaw Anas.

2017 Countryside Children's Welfare Home 2017: Celebrity Virtue Signaling?

https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/entertainment/Article-Wan-donates-to-Countryside-Children-s-Welfare-Home-498207

Are these the faces of children who know they aren't going to enjoy the "Generous Donations?" Are they even Orphans or are their parents paying for them to be in school?

https://i.imgflip.com/1t0eny.jpg

https://i.imgflip.com/1t0euh.jpg

Some history of the Orphanage 2009: http://www.gracebaptistmissionghana.org/orphans.html

kestrel9

There first sentence is from the article. The part in parenthesis came from this: https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/The-illegal-orphanage-business-in-Ghana-287937

The illegal orphanage business in Ghana

I included it as an aside, a more generalized point of the corruption of orphanages ("some orphanages") abusing donations intended to be for school. The full quote is:

There are many charitable organizations in Europe, especially Netherlands and Germany that are willing to support orphanages in Africa and Asia by providing money, logistical support, and volunteers. Most of the illegal orphanages are able to link with these well-intentioned European charities. Funds are diverted to the owners and managers of the orphanages, who have benefitted tremendously from these partnerships. Often the funds, originally designated for classrooms and dormitories for orphans, are used to convert the orphanage into a lucrative private school.

So much to cover, sorry about the confusion.

Here are highlights from 'The illegal orphanage business in Ghana'

...unscrupulous orphanage operators have adopted a business model where the centres get more money from international donors if they have more children. Orphanage recruiters approach poor, often rural families, promising a better education, better food and clothing, and a brighter future for children who leave their families to live in institutions. There are many reports of cash transactions for the children, though these are usually referred to as donations to the families.

...there is a difference between caring for abandoned children and enticing poor families to give up their children. Illegal orphanages in Ghana are often run as businesses, the children being assets. Such institutions often are not even interested in taking in disabled and genuinely abandoned children.

Volunteers are sometimes placed at orphanages and later realise that they have been double-crossed, as most of the children in the institutions have parents. What disheartens them most is the affluent lifestyle of the owners of these orphanages in contrast to the deplorable living conditions of the children. According to one American volunteer who came to me after a bad experience with one of these institutions, some of the managers ”keep the kids looking poor and in thread-bare dresses in order to attract sympathy from donors. It’s a lucrative business and the children are the assets.”

...Volunteers often pay several thousand dollars for a two-week visit, or a correspondingly higher amount for a stay of several months. Many are placed at orphanages where they later observe that most of the children have living parents.

...many orphanages refused to release children once they were in their care even if a family environment was available.

One American intern who had been sponsoring a girl through a fund raiser in America for five years, decided to visit her together with the fund raiser. She discovered the girl was not an orphan (neither was her brother). The girl appealed to her to help her and her brother return to their parents because of the poor food, bullying and drudgery that they were going through despite the fact that they enjoy better education.

The intern appealed to the new supervisor to reunite the children with their parents, and assured him that she had developed a fondness for the girl and would continue to support her after her return to her family.

...much to her chagrin, the supervisor was unwilling to accept her plea, using the excuse that the girl would not get a good education in her village.

Edit: The Children whose parents pay for their kids to be in school at these orphanages (like a boarding school) are publically designated as Orphans in order to attract larger donations from NGOs, Churches, etc.