The Care Reform Initiative (CRI) launched in 2006 as a joint venture between the Department of Social Welfare (DSW), OAfrica, UNICEF and other child protection agencies in Ghana. It involves the provision of various forms of support by OAfrica to enhance the capacity of the DSW to encourage family-based care. The initiative seeks to reduce over-reliance on care systems for the 4,500 vulnerable children who are currently living in institutions and move towards a range of integrated family- and community-based childcare services. The goal is a more consistent and stable approach to caring for vulnerable children in Ghana so that each child will be assured of a permanent home in a supportive and loving family. The main components of care reform in Ghana seek to prevent the disintegration of families through linkages with strategies that strengthen families, such as the social grant program – Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) – scholarships, food packages, access to national health insurance and other support programs.
In line with the Care Reform Initiative, OAfrica’s mission advocates for reintegration of children with their own families, whether with their biological parents or with extended family (kinship care), or to place children in foster care when they truly do not have family members who can approprirately care for them. OAfrica is proud to have been one of the main actors behind the adoption of National Plan of Action for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (NPA) in 2010 and was the only NGO mentioned as an implementer in the actions matrix of the original plan.
Click here for a full list of our actions in care reform.