KiC Foundation To Take Begging Mothers, Children Off Streets Of Tamale

Helen & Helena

Newly established and promising nongovernmental organisation (NGO) Kiddy Care Foundation (KiC Foundation), has launched a project aimed at halting begging by poor mothers of twins and triplets on the streets of Tamale.

It is an ambitious project by such a very fledgling charity, however management of the Foundation, believes support from benevolent individuals and other likeminded organisations, could make a huge difference.

As a first step towards realising this ambitious goal, KiC Foundation recently set out to register all begging mothers with twins or triplets and by the end of the programme, 65 mothers were registered. All registered mothers were present with their twins and triplets at the children’s section of the Northern Regional Library, venue of the programme.

Co-founded by triplets, Herbert, Helen and Helena Akwetey, the vision of KiC Foundation is to see a society that respects children’s rights to healthy life and total development. It seeks to realise this vision by creating a medium of intervention to support better living conditions for underprivileged children.  

Helena Akwetey told Savannahnews, that the Foundation would enrol all mothers into skills training programmes of their choice. “This will enable them to cater for their children after completion instead of sitting on the streets begging.”  

Nowhere in Ghana is the phenomenon of mothers with twins or triplets who beg on the streets, more pronounced than the Northern Regional capital town of Tamale. Notably Ghana’s third largest city after Accra and Kumasi, one of the saddest scenes to behold is mothers of twins or triplets begging on the streets with their young ones from dawn to dusk.

Mothers, Children Pose for a Picture After Being Registered

The phenomenon is being driven by superstitious beliefs which have been used to brainwash ignorant women, mostly the uneducated. They have been made to believe that when their twins, triplets, quadruplets or octuplets fall sick frequently, the best solution to end that problem is by sitting by the wayside or roam the streets and beg for alms everyday till the children grow.

Thus, it is common to see one or two-month old babies enduring the sunny weather conditions with their mothers. It is a life threatening situation to see such vulnerable women and their children struggling on the streets as speeding cars and motorbikes constantly screech to a halt each time any of them attempt to cross the road. At times, the unlucky ones get hit and injured or killed.

Director of Operations of KiC Foundation, Mr. Clement Boateng, appealed to Ghanaians who are well-to-do to support families and parents of multiple births to raise their kids in a healthy way that guarantees them a better future.

“When parents of twins and triplets are left to raise their kids alone amidst various forms of stigma, they are compelled to succumb to certain pressures to risk the lives of the kids for anything”, he observed.

Meanwhile, the Department of Social Welfare has supported the KiC Foundation’s plan to take all begging mothers of twins and triplets off the streets of Tamale. 

Child Rights Officer of the Department in Tamale, Issahaku Baidawu, the initiative was laudable and intended to bring hope and support to such vulnerable people.