The center, started in 2003, "provides a place where children can seek shelter, live comfortably, and access regular educational courses in nearby schools," said the Salesians in charge of the area. At the Salesian presence, young people "receive a range of supports to help them recover from street life and prepare for a better future," the Sons of Don Bosco continue.
Also, to ensure that minors successfully embark on educational paths, the center offers scholarships to pay for school fees and educational materials to those children who have been left without family support, or who otherwise come from very poor families.
As part of the process of recovery, rehabilitation, and social reintegration of the children, staff members of the St. Dominic Savio Youth Center accompany the youths twice a year on outings, organize meetings between Salesian staff and the youths' guardians, and monitor visits to the families - all to ensure that the rehabilitative path truly bears fruit, encourage the guardians in the reintegration process, and support the youths in their academic activities.
The ultimate goal of the activities, Fr. Gus Baek, Head of Salesian Missions, the Salesian Mission Office in New Rochelle, explained well, is "to support street children and help them recover their childhood."
"In our centers," the Salesian concluded, "the children are given all the primary supports they need to start the rehabilitation process and begin schools and vocational training."
More than 90,000 street children live in and around Accra. Half of them are girls. They have left their families in search of money and jobs. Boys work as transporters of goods, garbage collectors, shoe and car cleaners; girls often sell water, food, and sometimes their bodies. Ghana is also infamous in past centuries for human trafficking, with much of the population reduced to slavery. This human trafficking, unfortunately, still exists today. Other great plagues of this country are forced child labor and drug trafficking, as well as widespread corruption and environmental disasters related to illegal mining.
