Social Welfare struggles to locate families of 30 found children

The Department of Social Welfare is grappling with reintegrating about 30 found children, including a three-month-old, back into society and under humane care.

The department, a government statutory agency under the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP), has been housing these children since they were found after going missing in 2020.

According to figures provided by the department, 32 children were brought to them in 2020 by benevolent individuals through the police.

Out of this number, 10 have been reconnected with their families.

From January 2021 to May 2021, the department has received 14 found children and has reunited only six of them with their families.

The ages of these children range from three months to 17 years.

According to the department, all the children are Ghanaians, except one who is Sierra Leonean.

The latter has, however, has been reunited after providing contacts of the parents.

Speaking with The Ghana Report, a Welfare Officer at the Social Welfare Department who chose not to be identified explained that the children are often housed at the Osu Shelter Home and the Fostering Care Unit of the department.

Those at the shelter have a centre where they are given vocational training until such a time that they are reunited with their parents.

Those at the Fostering Care Unit are also taken care of by their foster parents. These benevolent caretakers are also responsible for educating the little ones until their biological parents or families are found.

The modus operandi in finding the families of the missing children includes assistance from individuals who bring them to the unit through the police.

These individuals usually provide information on where they found them and the conditions they were in, which helps in the investigation process.

Some children could provide the details of their families, including phone numbers through which they are contacted.

The media, primarily TV stations, also play a critical role in finding and reconnecting the missing children with their loved ones.

Meanwhile, the department has called on the media fraternity to support them in their endeavours.

“We want to get more TV stations involved so that in cases like that, we will be able to go there freely so that they show the faces of the children during their news and other programmes,” the officer said

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In recent times, there have been some reported cases of missing children in the country.

Two schoolchildren were reported missing in Mallam and Gbawe, in the Greater Accra Region, after leaving home in February this year.

According to the Accra Regional Public Affairs Unit of the Ghana Police Service, all efforts by the guardians of Betty Afanyibo and Theresa Koranteng, both aged 15, have yielded no positive result.

In May 2020, about 30 children were discovered in the Ashaiman Municipality alone in the Greater Accra Region after going missing for several days.

Some of these children got missing as far back as 2007.

According to the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC), an estimated 8 million children are reported missing each year worldwide.

Oftentimes, large numbers are recorded in countries like the United States of America, where an estimated 460,000 go missing each year, United Kingdom, 112,853, Germany, 100,000, India, 96,000, Russia, 45,000 and Australia, 20,000.

In Africa, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has reported that as of August 2020, about 44,000 people went missing, with half of them being children.

Nigeria, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Somalia, Libya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Cameroon make up 82 per cent of ICRC’s missing caseload in Africa.

To increase and sustain public awareness about the problem of missing and abducted children globally, May 25 has been set aside as International Missing Children’s Day each year.