There are over 90,000 young people living on the streets of Accra. Every day they are at the mercy of the weather, and every night they are at the mercy of unscrupulous adults. Children on the streets are at the very bottom of society’s ladder and often have no one to speak on their behalf.

 

In many areas of the city, these young people are considered a nuisance because they “disturb the peace” and are an eyesore as they beg for change from drivers who stop at traffic lights or try to earn some money by cleaning car windshields. Police raids to clear them off the streets often result in them getting hurt. The “system” does not understand the root cause behind their constant appearance on the streets – true hunger, abject poverty, broken homes, irresponsible parents.

 

At Hope Training Institute and our work is to give them love, teach them about Jesus, feed and clothe them, provide them with a skill, instill discipline in them, reconcile them with their families, and equip them for a better future. Current training programs are sewing, leatherworks, hairdressing, kente-weaving and auto mechanics.

 

In our efforts to become self-supporting and make the work sustainable, we have created the “Off the Street by Village of Hope (OTS by VOH)” brand through which the products that the past trainees, instructors and current trainees learn to make are sold to raise funds for the work.

The repair process of a child who has faced the harshness of street life is a slow and difficult one, but each small step forward keeps us going. Supporting this work by ordering products for personal use, for events, and as gifts to others, means supporting the training and rehabilitation of a street child. Each purchase of an OTS by VOH product means helping a former street child to learn valuable skills and to continue earning an income from the skills received at Hope Training Institute.