COVID-19: Edo govt releases guidelines on visits to orphanage homes

_… discovers undocumented baby in orphanage

… reads riot act to proprietors over disregard to child rights act

The Edo State Government has released guidelines regulating visits to orphanage homes in the state as part of strategies to check the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) in the state.

Commissioner for Social Development and Gender Issues, Hon. Maria Edeko, disclosed this after a tour of orphanage homes in Benin City, the Edo State capital.

The commissioner said the state government’s new guidelines for visitors to orphanage homes for charitable causes mandate that visitors must not be allowed to mingle with the children in the homes.

The commissioner revealed that an undocumented weeks-old baby was discovered during an unscheduled visit to Uyiosa Orphanage and Widows Ministry in Benin.

She said when her team got to Uyiosa Orphanage and Widows Ministry, they discovered that a baby in the custody of the centre was without documents notifying government of the birth of the child.

Edeko added that the state government has taken custody of the baby while the proprietress will be made to explain how the baby got into her custody without the knowledge of the Ministry.

Noting that the directive on visits to homes will be strictly enforced, she said any centre not operating within the confines of the law will be shut down.

She said the Governor Godwin Obaseki-led government is concerned about the welfare of children in orphanage homes, noting, “We will make sure we streamline the regulations guarding the operation of orphanages. Only those that are truly homes for the children will be left to operate. The ones that are not operating within the confines of the law will be shut down.”

She reassured that no child in Edo State will be allowed to be trafficked, abused, sold or used for hazardous jobs, according to the dictates of the state’s Child Right Laws and Labour laws.