With a four bedroom house, a bamboo school room, 75 children and three mothers, the Royal Seed Needy Home is a four-year-old orphanage near Kasoa in Central Region.

It is one of the numerous orphanages that the department of social welfare considers to be operating illegally. Although it has registered with the department as a non-governmental organisation, it does not have an operating license, like most of the private orphanages in Ghana.

Royal Seed Needy Home occupies one hectare of land, and has an additional three hectares for farming. It runs a school from nursery to class six for the inmates and other children in the community. Its teaching staff is made up of eight people's teachers [uncertified] and one trained teacher, who work for the school on a part-time basis.

The school is constructed out of bamboo and has four un-cemented classrooms. Nearby sits the small administrative office, which also serves as the infirmary.

Run by a vocational school graduate, Naomi Amoah, the orphanage"s funding comes from churches, offices and other philanthropists.

"She’s trying to make it the best she can, to get more volunteers, to get more money," said Annmarie Le Turgeon, a volunteer from England. Ms. Le Turgeon, who stays at a nearby orphanage, has visited Royal Seed at least three or four times and said it seems the owner cares immensely for the children.

"I know that there is a problem with sleeping accommodations for children… But it must be hard; she’s running it by herself."

But according to Godwin Francis Acquah, District Officer of the Social Welfare Department, Winneba, the conditions under which these children are kept are unacceptable. "She is keeping innocent children under horrible, terrifying and deteriorating situations. You don’t move the children from their comfortable homes and move them to this uncomfortable place," he said. "Royal Seed has got to go."

In 2005, government came out to state that all orphanages operating without license are operating illegally. However, instead of this information curbing the operation these orphanages, it rather led to its proliferation.

In 2005 the department of social welfare identified 55 private orphanages operating in the country. Currently, according to the department, there are 120 private orphanages in operation. The DSW attribute this phenomenal increase mainly to the popularity and money that operating an orphanage can bring.

However, many of the private orphanage operators believed government’s stand on the licensing issue is unfortunate. They claim that they have been dealing with the department of social welfare for years without the issue of licensing cropping up.

One such operator is Joe Yeboah, who operates Countryside orphanage in Bawjiase in Central Region.

"It was quite recently that we learnt from the DSW that we have to be licensed," said Mr. Yeboah.

However Eric Appiah Okrah, a child protection officer with UNICEF, said the fact that these orphanages have been working with the DSW over the years without a license does not make their operations legal. He abhors the current situation in the country where private orphanages are springing out without any recourse to standard. Reforms in the sector are long overdue, he added.

Explaining the need for licensing, Stephen Adongo, a Deputy Director with DSW, said apart from registering as an NGO with the Registrar General’s Department and also receiving a certificate of recognition from the DSW, these NGOs are supposed to obtain a license from the DSW before they can operate as an orphanage. He noted that licensing is a requirement in the Children’s Act, Section 105.

Partly taking the blame for the misunderstanding between the DSW and the private orphanage operators, Mr Adongo explained that the DSW initially confused the certificate of recognition with the issuance of a license.

He however indicated that when the department realised the anomaly it initiated the process of licensing.

Government is currently undertaking reforms in the sector to hold operators of orphanages to standards.

It is expected that requiring a licensing will weed the weak orphanages out of the system, as certain standards must be met before one can be obtained.

According to a report drafted by OphanAid Africa for the Government of Ghana the reforms are to ensure that institutional care is used as a last resort, and that when it is used, these establishments comply with the requirements of the Children’s Acts 560 (1998) and the UN Committee of the Rights of the Child, 1990 (UNCRC) and the UN Guidelines for the Protection and Alternative Care of Children without Parental Care (to be approved in 2007).

It will also ensure that children’s homes operating in the country have adequate resources to sustain their activities as credible out-of-home care and support establishments. The reforms will also set out the framework by which DSW can monitor the operations of Children’s homes in Ghana.

As part of some the standards set out, orphanage operators will be required to: have a written Statement of Purpose and a children’s guide; a placement plan devised in consultation with each child; periodic review of the child’s needs and development; and an ability to support individual children when they need it.

Over the past several months, the department has been holding workshops for operators across the country explaining the standards they should be striving for in their home. The workshops are also to remind operators that a license is necessary.

Mr Yeboah said they are not against the issuing of licensing. "If [DSW] had opened their door for us to come for the licensing we will have gone for it, but it was only their own orphanages that they have licensed," he added.

Adding his voice to this claim, Bishop Kwaku Addei, proprietor of Good Shepherd Orphanage, also in Central Region, said government alone cannot handle the orphan situation in the country. He noted that the private orphanage operators are helping the nation by providing for these children and therefore government should support them instead of putting impediments in their way. He also admitted that licensing is important so far as it will help rid the profession of "quacks", who are in the sector for profit.

Even for some of the more reputable orphanages, it is a challenge to meet all standards.

Countryside Orphanage is considered one of the best orphanages in its region. It has 137 children, made up of those who are full or half orphans, needy and abandoned children. It employs around 60 workers and 17 attendants [mothers]. It has a poultry farm with around 8,000 chickens, producing an average 2,000 eggs a day.

"Amongst the five orphanages operating in the district Countryside is leading in terms of facilities and size," said Mr Acquah.

However, Mr Acquah observed that even with Countryside’s success, it does not live up to standard. He said most of the attendants at the various orphanages including Countryside are there because they need employment and not for their love of children. He also observed that some of the attendants keep their own children in the orphanage and therefore there is a likelihood that they will favour their own during feeding time.

According to UNICEF officer Appiah Okrah, none of the orphanages can replace the love that a parent has for his child and therefore families should be encouraged to keep their children instead of putting them in orphanages, adding "in the African family system, the external family structures makes it possible for a child whose parent were dead to be catered for by other family members."

He said the best idea is to strengthen family structures and discourage the institutionalising of orphans.

The ultimate objectives of the Care Reform Initiative 2007-2008 is to inform, educate and legislate. It is hoped the reforms will provide options for strengthening families so that they may continue to care for their own and find homes for children without parental care through adoption and fostering.

The aim is also to protect orphans and vulnerable children from mistreatment, neglect and abuse, close down badly run children’s homes, improve conditions in homes that provide quality care and ensure appropriate care for children suffering from serious illness and handicap.

"We hope this reform will bring change," said Mr Adongo, adding, "It is our target that with this reform, private operators will realise that what they are doing is not in the best interest of the children."

He observed that the reform provides alternative source of care such as: community base care (where the care provider goes into the community to help people in their houses); adoption; and fosterage, for those who could not meet the standard of operating an orphanage.

He said child care is expensive and time consuming and therefore the department is encouraging all successful private orphanage operators who will be given the go-ahead after the reform to be focused on having children with similar, specific needs. "An orphanage should know the category of inmate it keeps," he said, adding that the calling of God or love for children is not enough to operate an orphanage.