About Organizations That Assist Homeless People in Ghana
Ghana's five million residents include so many homeless people, refugees and orphaned children, relief agencies from around the world have come forward to help. Every day Ghana relief workers strive to combat deplorable living conditions, poverty, high death and disease rates. Infusions of money, talent and myriad types of humanitarian relief are funneling their way into this small nation as fast as possible, but competition from other African nations in need of aid--and a finite well of resources--are doing little more than putting a bandage on a wound that requires surgery. Fortunately, relief workers invested in Ghana's future are doggedly pursuing a better life for the country and its people and while space doesn't permit listing all of them, here are some of the agencies coming to the aid of Ghana's homeless.
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Homeless International/People's Dialogue on Human Settlements Ghana (ODG)
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Like most nations with large populations of impoverished slum dwellers, issues associated with sanitation, fire outbreaks due to poorly constructed makeshift shelters, flooding and disease make Ghana's capitol Accra and other densely populated areas epicenters of volatility. Homeless International, in consortium with the People's Dialog on Human Settlements Ghana, spreads its meager resources among approximately 91 communities. With help from the Ghana Federation of the Urban Poor (GHAFUP), this U.S. church-based relief organization helps keep on the ground personnel supplied with funds and supplies for Ghana's most highly-populated areas--Accra, Kumasi, Ashaiman and Takoradi. Launched after evictions increased the nation's homeless population dramatically, this organization was further stressed when flooding displaced 275,000 Ghana citizens. Fund raising efforts provide food, medical supplies and basic necessities, but this charitable consortium always needs more help.
RESPECT Ghana
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RESPECT Ghana serves as a conduit between the international community and Ghana's refugee community. Benefactors contribute time, money and ideas to the cause. On-the-ground volunteers handle logistics. Included in RESPECT Ghana's goals are launching programs that raise awareness about refugee issues, bridging the gap between students in developed worlds and refugee students and helping to organize the world community in matters relating to human rights violations and global peace. Foremost in RESPECT Ghana's philosophical and practical activities are ways to permanently house refugees following crises. Resettlement becomes most difficult when refugees can't return home and are not welcome to stay in a host country so RESPECT Ghana must often look to a third country for permanent settlement. People who have been persecuted and are seeking permanent asylum further complicate this task. Another goal of RESPECT Ghana is finding ways to help homeless Ghana residents become self-reliant via job placement or self-employment.
The American Refugee Committee/ Budumburam Refugee Camp
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The American Refugee Committe (ARC) works with international partners to help refugees and displaced people find new homes while maintaining dignity and self-sufficiency. ARC helps victims of war and civil conflict rebuild their lives by providing health care, clean water, shelter repair, legal aid, trauma counseling, micro credit, community development services and repatriation. ARC's Budumburam Refugee Camp, located outside of Accra, Ghana, uses volunteers to staff its Children Better Way (CBW) program. CBW aims to "give homeless children a childhood." Volunteers teach English, math, science and other subjects and give children rudimentary health care. ARC is looking for volunteers with environmental, sanitation and computer expertise to expand its services.
HardtHaven Foundation
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To shelter and sustain orphaned children in Ghana, the HardtHaven Children's Home opened on May 28, 2007 in Kpando, Volta Region, Ghana. This residence shelters youngsters with HIV/AIDS, malnourished children and those suffering from tuberculosis and Malaria. The facility educates children and teaches them skills, such as snail raising and bee keeping. HardtHaven works to transform AIDS orphans from hopeless, suffering victims into productive members of the community, offering more than food, clothing and shelter. The aim of the Children's Home is to continue giving loving homes to homeless children while striving to be self-supporting so they are less reliant on help from the outside world.
United Nations Humanitarian Relief
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The United Nations offers a wide variety of services to the homeless of Ghana through myriad relief organizations under its international charter. Missions like UNESCO and myriad refugee-focused initiatives regularly enlist volunteer celebrity ambassadors help raise awareness about, and make appeals on behalf of, Ghana's homeless and the refugees that continue to flood across the nation's border.
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