Reintegrate orphans but don’t close orphanages

Editor,I wish to respond to the article, ‘More Rwandans adopting’, which was published in your Friday’s issue. I think reintegration of children back into society is a very important issue. I also believe in fostering children but the problem here is if the orphanages are completely closed what will happen to future orphans and other homeless children?Orphanages are seen as places for orphaned and other vulnerable children. These are centres where people will bring orphans and later reintegrate the children back into the society through foster families. The orphanages also find orphans, so when you close their programme ask yourselves who will be going into villages to find these orphans and street children?Ghana has this same programme but they have not completely closed down orphanage homes but the social welfare officers in Ghana are working with these orphanage homes to reintegrate the children back into foster homes in a family setting. Ghana government does not allow the opening of new orphanage homes.All children in orphanage homes are being reintegrated into the society. Hundreds of children have been reintegrated into family homes and yet hundreds more keep coming into orphanage homes and they too will be reintegrated into the society.I do not support the complete closure of orphanage homes.Future Rwandan orphan children and street children will surely suffer. They will not know where to go before they are placed into foster homes. I would advise the Rwandan Government, as a social worker working with Ghanaian orphans, that it should allow the orphanage homes to keep operating while they keep reintegrating these children until there are no more orphans.If they should allow these orphanage homes to operate they will keep finding hundreds of orphans who need families, this means more children can be brought into the orphanages and eventually handed to foster families.Koffi OppongGhana

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Reintegrate orphans but don’t close orphanages