Introduction

Today, economic problems corne at the head of man's present plight. They may be considered the root of life's problems that leave a pervasive impact on man's material interests and social conditions. The result has a direct effect not only on the life of the individual but also oil the community and on the level of their material progress and civil development.

Father and mother are two precious beings. Everyone knows their value and looks upon them with respect. The parent-child relationship is structurally complimentary. Responsibility for and compassion towards the child is a matter of religious importance as well social concern. Whether the parents are alive or deceased, present or absent, known or unknown, the child is to be provided for with optimum care.

Obviously, one of the most unfortunate sections of society are children who lose their parents or art abandoned when they are quite young and children thrown on the street to fend for themselves because parents cannot make ends meet.

Formation

This project was conceived by a concerned citizen of Teshie, Mrs. Janet Anyeley Parker. One day, at a funeral she attended at Teshie township, she saw right in the center of the town both boys and girls in groups. Some of them were gambling with playing cards whilst others were engaged in bingo. The girls were cooking with sand.

These children were of school going age between the ages of 5 and 13. She approached thern and started questioning them. Their answers, she said, were pathetic and virtually the same: "My parents are dead, rny mother says she doesn't have money to send me to school, I don't know the whereabout of my father and so on.

In order to satisfy her curiosity, she ventured into the arena by moving from house to house so as to verify the authenticity of the information given to her by these children. It was one of her own research and study that it came to light that most of the children did not have anybody to care for them. She was struck by the extent of deprivation suffered by these children in the Teshie township. There is not much of a constituency for these homeless kids who are being marketed, or who must sell themselves to survive.

These children survive as a result of tips they receive from people whose errand they carry. The tips are most of the time in the form of food. In the evening, they are found at the vicinity of video houses and some even pass the night on pavements and places uncongenial to their health. Mrs Parker thought she had seen everything, but she was shocked to learn about another disturbing problem which needs serious solution. That is the burning issue of teenage mothers who are on the increase, indeed a bane to our community and the nation and a matter of grave concerti to all of us - even to the teenagers themselves.

These are found among illiterates and school dropouts. The results is high proportion of young mothers who do not know how to properly look after themselves, let alone their babies. Along the way, these inexperienced mothers, out of hardship and frustration, leave the children to struggle and.fend for themselves in the streets.

Viewed critically from this gloomy backdrop, she embarked upon this arduous task with a high ambition and hope to draw public attention to this silent destroyer of our national heritage: these needy children the teenage mothers and the neglected aged folks.

Can anything be done? Nowhere has the question been answered more effectively than the establishment of the Teshie Orphanage by Mrs Janct Anyeley Parker in May 1995 in consultation, with well-meaning persons in and around Teshic township. Although as a Non- governmental organization basically concerned with the plight of deprived children, the policies and plans as have designed for our development are naturally people centred; and human oriented. In essence, everything which contributes to the welfare and well-being of the underprivileged in our society.

Performance

As a first step, Mrs. Parker launched a massive house-to-house campaign advising that the ever-increasing rate of school dropouts and teenage pregnancies with its attendant child labour in the fishing and load-carring industry in the township is a bane to the community. Parents were encouraged to educate - but not frighten their children to the danger, to keep close track of their children, to form neighbourhood watch groups and to ask headteachers to immediately notify parents whose children failed to reach school.

Meanwhile, the Orphanage had to screen and organize home based care for some of these needy children whose conditions were in very deplorable state. During this time, she kept on prodding while pushing on the work through difficulties and hardships of which it is useless to complain.