THE EGYAM ORPHANAGE IS NOW KNOWN AS EGYAM CHILDREN'S HOME

Background

 

The Egyam Children’s Home is located at Egyam, a suburb of Takoradi in the Western Region of Ghana. The Home was started by a Dutch woman by name Mrs. Thea Van Den Bosch. It was in France, at Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto that Mrs. Van Den Bosch met Msgr. Francis Yaw Tawiah, both of whom were there on a pilgrimage. Mrs. Van Den Bosch came along with her healing Ministry, and it was this that drew Msgr. Tawiah’s attention to her. He got closer to her and experienced her wonderful gift of healing. Thereafter, he invited her to visit Ghana, specifically his Parish at Egyam. She honored the invitation and arrived in Ghana in 2004 on a familiarization tour. Through her interaction with the people of Egyam and some surrounding communities, she identified the need to start a home for deprived children. They went ahead to acquire a piece of land for that purpose.  She went back to Holland and returned in 2005. The Home was officially registered in the same year (19th October 2005) at the Registrar General’s Department under the name Egyam Orphanage Foundationwith Certificate No- G-16,529 and G-36,529 as Certificate of incorporation and Certificate to commence business respectively. The Home began to grow from this humble beginning, and the name was later changed to Egyam Children’s Home on 18th March, 2014. The home is also registered under the Department of Social Welfare with Certificate No- WR/001/11 and D.S.W /4953 as the License to operate as an approved residential Home and a Certificate of recognition respectively.

 

It is worthy to note that Mrs. Van Den Bosch is a staunch Catholic with a big place in her heart for the underprivileged, which is evident by her pioneering role in establishing the Children’s Home at Egyam. The dire need for such a facility pushed her to hatch the idea without even thinking of how to finance it. Fortunately, she shared the idea with some friends back in Holland, and with their assistance, she was able to raise seed money to start the project. She strongly believes it was divine intervention to help her fulfill a childhood dream. As a child, she had the habit of tearing pictures of deprived people in Africa and pasting them in her room with a promise to one day help such people, once God gave her the ability to do so. Therefore, her encounter with Msgr. Tawiah at Lourdes in France and all that followed, up to the establishment of the Children’s Home can truly be seen to be God’s support for her good wish.

It should be noted that since the formative years of the Home, Mrs. Van Den Bosch involved the Roman Catholic Church through the role of people such as the then Bishop of Sekondi-Takoradi, Most Rev. John Martin Darko and the late Rev. Fr. Francis Arthur-Blay. Indeed, Father Arthur-Blay had served as a chaplain for the Home for many years, providing spiritual support for the little ones who are of different religious and ethnic background.     

In 2018, she handed over full custody and management of the Home to the Roman Catholic Church. The then Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Takoradi, Most Reverend John Bonaventure Kwofie, now the Metropolitan Archbishop of Accra, entrusted the management of the Home to the Daughters of the Most Holy Trinity (Filiae Sanctissimae Trinitatis: FST), a Congregation of Sisters founded by Archbishop Emeritus, Most Reverend Peter Kwasi Sarpong of the Kumasi Archdiocese. Since 2018, the FST Sisters have been working round the clock to source funding for the home, but what is more soothing and hopeful for the sustenance of the Home is the fact that, they have undertaken some projects to internally generate funds on their own to run the Home.

 

 

The Egyam Children’s Home is where the children are affectionately cared for by the Religious Sisters and Mothers and are provided with the resources which every normal Ghanaian child needs in order to create a sense of belonging and acceptability. The children in the Home are of different religious and ethnic backgrounds and the Home maintains that right of freedom of association for all children.

 

The children attend the Egyam Roman Catholic Kindergarten, Basic and Junior High School respectively with the children from the local community. The children then continue their Senior High and University education at Government accreted schools in Ghana. In total over 100 students are enrolled into school.

 

The young people after completing the tertiary and have earned a good standard of living and feel ready to move out of the children’s Home. A shared accommodation are made available to them.

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Vision of the Home

• Be a shelter for orphaned and vulnerable children, train and nurture them to be useful citizens in their communities and country.

• Expand the Project to other parts of the country.  

 

Mission of the Home

• To provide children with a home and take care of their physical, emotional and psychological needs

• To support other needy children and take care of their physical, emotional and psychological needs.

• To provide children with quality education to unearth their potentials.

• To support the needy, underprivileged or orphaned children with healthy food for proper growth and development.

• To provide orphaned children with quality medical care for proper development.

• To train children morally in order to become a beacon of hope and a light to illuminate the darker areas of the society at large.

• To protect children from discrimination, violence, abuse, exploitative labour and oppression.

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THE HANDIND OVER FROM THE EGYAM DUTCH FOUNDATION TO CATHHOLIC DIOCESE OF SEKONDI-TAKORADI

The Egyam Dutch Foundation led by the Founder Mrs. Thea Van Den Boschand Mr. Gerard Booms in the month of January, 2018 signed a deed to Transfer the final responsibility of Egyam Children’s Home which was formally known as Egyam Children’s Foundation to the Catholic Diocese of Sekondi-Takoradi to the then Bishop Most. Rev. John Bonaventure Kwofie and the present Board Chairman Mr. Kwame Macafui.

 

Attached below are scenes captured during the handing over ceremony with caption to add-on.

 

Bishop John Kwofie and Thea Van den Bosch during the signing of the deed whereby the final responsibility was transferred to the “Diocese Sekunde-Takoradi”. Photo on the right the symbolic “handover” Kwame Macafui, Gerard Booms, Thea vd Bosch & John Kwofie. January 2018.

 

OUR IMPACT

 

2.1Vocational Training Centre

 

Egyam Children Home built an in-house Vocational Training Centre as means to provide young adults specifically ladies from the Egyam community and it’s environ with the skills in fashion design to secure a reliable employment and an avenue to be independent.

2.2Academic Scholarship

 

The Executive Director of Egyam Children’s Home Rev. Sr. Mary Gladys Boakye, FST through her initiative was able to secure Master Card and Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) Scholarships respectively for our continuous students in Kwame Nkrumah of Science and Technology (KNUST) and Takoradi Technical University (TTU) with earn merits to study in various academic discipline. This kind gesture by these two stakeholders has help to ease the financial constraints of Egyam Children’s Home.

 

Our partnership with these institution shall enable our students leverage on ideologist and innovations with other children pursuing similar and different dream to make impact and sustainable future for themselves and the community as a whole.

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