Accra Community 

Already in the early 80’s the Brothers FIC decided to open a com- munity in Accra, mainly for the sake of service to the other com- munities up North. Accra being the capital city and the centre of government, Brothers had very often to travel to Accra for ‘business’. By opening a community there, we thought it would reduce the amount of travelling and solve accommodation problems for ourselves. From a rented bungalow in 1989, we moved into our own premises at Adenta, a suburb of Accra, in 1993. 

For the community the main apostolate is hospitality: receive the many Brother-visitors and others (mainly associated somehow with the Brothers) who arrive at the house at occasionally very odd hours. 

Of course, receiving visitors from abroad and seeing them off is part and parcel of this assignment. Since Korle Bu in Accra is the main specialist hospital in the country, accompanying Brothers who need treatment is a very important part of it. A telling example is Bro. Oscar who needs regular dialysis. 

The main external apostolate consists of Catholic Action for Street Children (CAS) and the Technical Institute, where Bro. Lambert is teaching. Bro. Henry is the Programme Officer of CHAG (Church Hospital Association of Ghana), while Bro. Peter A. is engaged in Peace building in the area and has officially been appointed as assistant coordinator for the FIC Spiritual Journey. 

One of the biggest headaches in Accra is the traffic situation. Bro. Jos needs to travel daily up and down to the refuge on the other side of town. It takes him more than 2 hours to get there and the same thing happens in the evening when he returns. It needs special courage to enter into this kind of thing. Therefore Brothers who come to Accra for business leave the house early in the morning and stay in town until evening, because to travel up and down for meals etc. is impossible if you want to get some serious business done. 

Catholic Action for Street Children (CAS) 

This is the task of Bros. Jos and Patrick. Very soon after the community opened in 1989, the need was felt to establish some apostolic activity as well. Initially the idea was to open a vocational/ technical institute and for that reason Bro. Jos was asked to come to Accra and make some investigations and consider possibilities. He was very much touched by the discussion in many congregations around that time about ‘Option for the Poor’. With that in mind, he got into contact with a French SMA Father who was operating a home for handicapped and neglected children and who inspired Jos to concentrate on street children, the number of which was daily increasing in Accra and is still growing even now. 

In short, this caused the CAS project to come into existence after the necessary consultations and discussions both with people in the field (e.g. Fr. Patrick Shanahan M. Afr.) as well as the Diocesan authorities (the late Archbishop Dominic Andoh). With the sup- port from these quarters the project took off in a rented building called ‘refuge’ where children living and working on the street can come during the day and wash down, do their laundry but also receive some classes (basic education) as well as get introduced into some simple trades. At the same time there is time to interact with the staff who gets to know the children better and look for further possibilities with as ultimate goal to get the children off the streets. 

This has not been easy, but quite a number have, through the efforts of CAS, gone to a regular school or became apprentices in some trade such as carpentry, sewing etc. Obviously it demands a tremendous courage for children of that age to make the change from living and working in the street (often in gangs that are closely knit together) to a regular school-life in the hope of getting gainfully employed in the long run. To help children make that difficult decision in their life is the biggest challenge of the project, sometimes with wonderful results, but often also ending in deep disappointment.