Explore. Dream. Discover.: Achiase Children's Home

Dec. 5 2011

I am currently volunteering at Achiase Children’s Home. I am living in a volunteer house in a compound right next to the orphanage. The general role of a volunteer here is helping with care like bathing and other hygiene, washing clothes and dishes, helping with cooking and obviously spending time with the kids. The orphanage has been located in its current location for about 2 years, however the two owners of the orphanage have been caring for children (foster care as most would all call it) for over 11 years. The children at the orphanage are currently between the ages of 3 and 18. The owners are Mr. Sam and Mamma Sara. The children at the orphanage have no one to care for them for a variety of reasons. Currently the majority of children here currently have had a death of a parent. Generally in Ghanaian culture the man works and the mother stays home to care for the children. When one parent is deceased it makes it difficult. Single father’s struggle to care for children as a result of needing to work and single mothers struggles financially to meet the needs of the children. Some of the children here have other siblings who are being cared for by their parents, but the parents are unable financially to care for all of their children. A few children here have no parents, but have other family members who they have contact with, but who are unable to care for them. As a result of these situations these children are not in a position to be adopted but just need a safe place to live.

Inside my living compound

Front of compound

Road to the compound, orphanage and school

These goats may look cute but between them, the chickens and
sweeping I was awoken very early every day

Little kids room (hence the plastic on the bed)

Little kids room

Older girls room

Double trouble

Cheese!!!!

To cute for words!!!

I love that a 6 year old is better with a
knife than me! Seeing the kids use knives
was something I had to get used to.

The orphanage also has a school called Bethel Academy. All of the children attend this school from the orphanage other than the high school students who attend a local high school. Francis Panyin and Kweuh Aqa (the last typing was two little boys that came up and were memorized by my computer and wanted to type their name). Bethel Academy is also open to village children and this is how the Children’s Home maintains financially. However they are currently struggling as a result of low school enrollment by village children. The village children pay 50 pesawa to attend school each day and receive lunch. This is less than 1 dollar a day. There are government schools which are free, but I am not sure exactly how they work. I am currently unsure why the village children attend a school they have to pay for but I am going to look into this more. It may be due to the cost of transportation to a government school, since they are often not within walking distance. The school is generally a little chaotic, and the kids never seem to be in school. However I am here during exam time and before Christmas break so this may have something to do with it (but I think it might be like this all the time). The kids appear to be wandering around all of the time and have to be redirected back to school many times a day. I feel like I say go to school a million times day or say it in Fante. The children start attending school around the age of 2 in the nursery class. Most of their education is done in English including Math, Science, Religious Studies, Reading and Citizenship. They also have a Fante class. This is the local language that the local community speaks. The kids appear to enjoy attending school, but struggle to grasp concepts. I was very impressed with a few of the children that sought out help every night during the week of exams to study. This is impressive since this extra studying was not expected and took away from their free time. It was interesting to see the kids marks after the exams. Mamma Sara was excited when the kids got above 50%. I was surprised to see her reaction. I am unsure if very low grades are just seen as acceptable or if grading is done differently. I am not up on education as much as all my teacher friends but it appears that the kids are learning on a low level than they would be in the same grade in North America. I worried about how much education children are getting in North America but I worry even more about how children are educated in developing countries. All of the teachers at the school only have a high school education. To work at a government school you must have a degree and as a result you get paid more. I worry about the way the children learn as they memorizes concept including math and reading rather than learning how to add and how to use letters to sound out word. It is hard to help the kids when there major skill is to memorize.