Displaying 1 - 7 of 7
Abstract
The paper describes the findings of a geographical mapping and analysis of residential care facilities in four regions of Ghana. The mapping exercise study identified 24 residential facilities with 944 children, amounting to 22% of residential facilities and 27% of children in residential facilities in Ghana. Most of the residential facilities were privately run with their budgets funded by international donors. Seventy-five percent of the residential facilities were unlicensed because they did not meet the national standards for residential care facilities. Most of the children…
The focus of this thesis is the position of orphans, vulnerable children and orphanages in Ghana in relation to the ‘help’ they receive from western volunteers and NGOs. This position is often viewed differently by NGOs, volunteers, and their ‘host’ communities. The author's main argument is that the western aid ‘industry’ (Crewe and Harrison 1998, 15) has played a major role in the proliferation of orphanages in Ghana. Ghanaians – adults and children – involved in orphanages in the Volta Region are active agents in this process of receiving aid from NGOs and western volunteers.…
This chapter discusses the practice of child circulation in Ghana. Coe notes that in Ghana, child circulation is not meant to break a child’s connection with biological parents. It is meant to increase the child’s social connections and support structure. Per Coe, when Ghanaians go abroad, they often look to place their children in other households, generally in the homes of people not related to them in the country of migration. Traditionally in Ghana, children are known to belong to multiple mothers and fathers.
Coe discusses the two types of circulation associated with…
Using a practice approach focused on interactions between foreign volunteers and local staff, this study examined the impact of volunteer tourism on Zion Primary School and Tamale Children’s Home (an orphanage), both in Tamale, Ghana. These two projects were selected because they represent two very common forms of volunteer tourism, and Ghana is one of the most popular destinations for volunteer tourism. Qualitative methods including participant observations and face-to-face interviews were used to identify consequences of the interactions among volunteers, local employees, and the children;…
This overview is intended to contribute to discussions on international volunteering in residential care centres as an anecdotal research piece on the situation in Ghana. Ghana was chosen as a focus country due to recommendations from a range of informants who raised concerns about extent of the practice in residential care centres in Ghana. Availability of research also contributed to the choice of Ghana as a country focus. This overview was informed by online resources, academic and institutional literature, and interviews with informants.
Over the last decade, research in basic human development has revealed that institutional care - particularly when used to serve children under five - is not an appropriate form of alternative care, and instead of protecting children can put them at further risk of harm. Efforts have been made to transition international thinking away from the use of orphanage-based systems and toward providing family-based care. With this in mind, the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute’s (CCAI) The Way Forward Project brought together a group of…
We examine the impact of orphanhood on children’s school enrollment in 10 Sub-Saharan African countries. Although poorer children in Africa are less likely to attend school, the lower enrollment of orphans is not accounted for solely by their poverty. We find orphans are less likely to be enrolled than are non-orphans with whom they live. Consistent with Hamilton’s Rule, the theory that the closeness of biological ties governs altruistic behavior, outcomes for orphans depend on the relatedness of orphans to their household heads. The lower enrollment of orphans is largely explained caregivers…