Conditions imputable to poverty should never be the only justification for the removal of a child from parental care into orphanages, says an official of the Department of Social Welfare, Child Right Promotion and Protection.
Mrs Helena Obeng Asamoah stressed that poverty should not be an excuse to separate children from their families. Rather, she said poverty should signal parents of the need to provide appropriate support to the family.
About 80 per cent of children living in orphanages, according to her, have families who could have supported them to live comfortably in their own communities.
Mrs Obeng Asamoah made the observation, at a press conference to throw light on adoption, and the need for children to be socialized into the family system, in Accra on Thursday.
According to her, the orphanages do not adequately provide the level of positive individual attention. They also compromise the emotional, physical, mental and social development of Children.
She said: “This is not to say that we do not need orphanages or children’s home, they serve very good purposes but children should not be there most of their lifetime.”
“Child development is holistic. The child develops physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually as defined within the child’s culture,” she added.
Among other things, she mentioned, children spending long periods in such institutions find it harder to integrate back into families and communities; they are thus denied access to the life-long attachment and community support systems that family relationship and communities can provide.
She urged stakeholders who take decisions on children requiring alternative care to avoid unnecessary delays in such decision making so the children are not unnecessarily delayed in the orphanages.
Mrs Victoria Natsu, Deputy Director, Department of Social Welfare, Justice Administration said adoption is the legal process which permanently transfers all the legal rights and responsibilities of being a parent from the child’s birth parents to the adoptive parents.
She added that it is a lawful process by which a person becomes a lawful member of a family different from their birth family.
Ghana, she said, accepted the absolute obligation to protect children without parental care, by ratifying the UN Convention on the rights of the child.
Mrs Natsu noted that Ghana has been identified as one of the African countries experiencing a soar in inter-country adoption.
Story by Ghana/GNA