Catholic Action for Street Children

Catholic Action for Street Children (CAS) was founded in 1992 in order to help the increasing number of children living in street situations in Accra. It is CAS' mission to interact with children living in street situations so that they can be understood and supported. Those children who wish to leave the street are assisted to enter into a stable living situation and either go to school or enter skills training.

CAS's street workers go out on to the streets of Accra on a daily basis, searching for children and meeting them in their own environment.  Three times a week the workers provide basic education on the streets. The children are able to take half an hour off from working to take part in these informal lessons, which include life skills and health education. From this introduction, the street workers are able to start to befriend the children and introduce CAS' house of refuge to them. 

The house of refuge is open every week day, and children are invited to drop in. The refuge offers all sorts of activities for the children, such as, candle making, computer lessons, table tennis, watching videos and basic education in terms of literacy and numeracy. In addition to this the centre offers children the possibility to wash themselves and their clothes - something they do not get the chance to do on the streets.

Once a child has attended the drop in centre for a while, and has shown a real commitment to leave the streets, CAS run a three year sponsorship scheme for the children. This includes either a school or skills training placement, accommodation, often with a foster family, and constant support. At the end of the three years, children are then able to find work and support themselves away from the streets.

For more information please go to their website www.casghana.com

You can also follow CAS on Facebook.