Kinder Paradise Orphanage, Pram Pram



This weekend I had the opportunity to go to an orphanage that some of the plumbers and welders here on the ship have kind of taken under their wing. They have spent the last couple of weeks building the kids there a jungle gym. The orphanage Kinder Paradise is in a beautiful town on the coast, called Pram Pram. The location was chosen because there are so many street children and children homeless living on the ocean. It has a huge lot of land, much room to grow on and a church in Hamberg, Germany that is supporting them in entirety. They have sponsored the children and the lady that runs the orphanage, Silka is from Germany. She found most of the 50 children on the streets or in homes that were dilapitated, run down and unhealthy for living in. She took these kids in and soon started the orphanage. She divides her time between this orphanage and two homes for troubled teens in Accra. She estimates that there are 30,000 street children in Accra alone. Many are in danger of child slavery as that is still a huge problem here in Ghana. The orphange itself is rather new and absolutely beautiful with a school building and then a boys and girls home. The rooms are these huge spacious rooms with bunkbeds and mosquito nets for each child. It is a very peaceful place and the kids are so respectful and so well behaved. I went to church there on sunday and the kids did everything. They are starved for attention though and when you are there they are attached to you. One girl in particular is in the picture above she is in the red shirt her name is Gloria she was badly burned by her mother when she was a child, the doctors also believe that she suffered a stroke or some sort of brain damage. When Silka found her about two years ago she was lying in a bed, she was unable to talk or walk or even feed herself, her arms and feet were badly contracted and burned much like my pateint Ebenezer.
Gloria was taken to the orphanage and money was raised for her surgeries. Silka worked with her every day to take away the memory that walking hurts and she now talks beautifully, she walks with a limp and her right arm is rather bent however she has made amazing progress. This Friday I am headed back to the orphanage with the team of construction guys and the physical therapists on board that have very few patients right now so they are going to see how they can help Gloria and the other handful of children that would greatly benefit from some regular physical and occupational therapy. I am so excited that we are able to help them and provide for them at this time.
The playground will be finished in the next two weeks however Marcel the head of the project is a dreamer and he is always coming up with something new to add so when he gets back from his families time off I am sure there will be more additions to the already huge playground.
It has been awesome to be a part of this project as it gets me off the ship and it really shows how what seems like a minor little thing to us, a playground will change the lives of these 50 or so kids that have never seen anything like this. It's fun to go back each week and see how each week the kids that are learning to finally live in one place with one set of people get more settled and more at home. It's incredible to see their transformations from these homeless, hopeless famileless children to these happy carefree kids.