Police in Ghana have rescued more than 40 girls from an orphanage home after an undercover journalist; Anas Aremeyaw Anas exposed how the girls are forced to have sex with men for survival.
The orphanage is being funded by benevolent local and foreign organizations but their donations go down the drain as the manageress of place divert the funds meant for the welfare of the children, allowing the children to engage in all kinds of horrible ventures for survival.
The journalist disguised himself as a person looking for employment in the orphanage and he was employed. He lived in the orphanage for six months and uncovered that the place has been turned into a business venture by the manageress of the orphanage-Mrs Emma Boafo Yeboah.
Anas Aremeyaw Anas is known for his undercover works in and outside Ghana which bothers on serious human rights violation and corruption.
The orphanage- Countryside Children Welfare Home is located in the town of Awutu Bawjiase in the Central Region of Ghana. Anas captured the inhuman treatments the children face in the orphanage in a secret video. The video will soon be broadcast live on Ghana’s national television.
The children are deprived of food, proper health care and above all, punished severely for any least offence committed. They are also made to fast by force and are given only mango and water at the end of the fasting in the evening.
Whereas the children are starving to death, it is said donations such as food items that have been made by benevolent individuals were sold in large quantities to traders by the manageress.
Sex is said to be very common in the orphanage. Some men from the town take advantage of the suffering of the children and lure them for sex at a low price.
One girl was alleged to have undergone three abortions. In one instance, she was said to have aborted the pregnancy with the help of one of the female attendants in the orphanage.
“Sex is like water in this place. orphanage one cedi cedi’; that is how those girls are referred to because they are cheap and abortion is rampant and more so because just one drug can do it,” one of the children told the undercover journalist. The cedi is the name of Ghana’s currency and one cedi is just capable of buy a small piece of bread.
The police have commenced an investigation into the matter and the manageress of the orphanage will soon be trial for violation of human rights. Meanwhile, the children have been moved to another orphanage in the capital Accra where they are being hosted temporarily. Some have been admitted in hospital due to the trauma they have gone through.
On Social Media, Ghanaians expressed their anger towards the manageress of the orphanage with some calling for proper supervisions by the Department of Social Welfare to regulate other orphanage.
In 2013, Anas Aremeyaw Anas exposed similar abuse by an orphanage against children under its care in the capital Accra. Human rights activists have hailed his undercover works which have earned him some local and international awards.
