Streets of Accra: Home for the Homeless

Every morning in Accra, particularly around Kwame Nkrumah Circle, a troubling scene repeats itself. Children who should be preparing for school instead weave through traffic, knocking on car windows, and begging for coins.

From Circle to Kaneshie, Tema Station, the Central Business District, and the 37 Military Hospital area, these young faces reflect a growing social crisis that Ghana can no longer pretend is solved.

Many of these children—and some mothers—sleep in front of shops, on pavements, or under footbridges. When night falls, cardboard replaces mattresses, and hunger replaces comfort. Some cook whatever they can find—discarded food, roadside leftovers, or partially spoiled items from refuse dumps. This exposes them to diseases, abuse, drug use, and human trafficking, turning survival into a daily danger.

Street life is stealing their future. While other children carry school bags, these ones carry fear and hardship. Without education, counselling, and care, they are pushed into labour, crime, and long-term poverty. The street becomes their classroom, but it teaches only struggle, not opportunity.

This is a matter for the government, Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), and other municipalities across the country. The menace persists in various regions and must be treated as an emergency.

There is an urgent need for more shelters, feeding programmes, rehabilitation centres, and compulsory reintegration into school. Social welfare officers must patrol hotspots like Circle regularly—not only during special exercises.

Communities, parents, NGOs, and traditional leaders also have a role to play. Poverty, migration, and family breakdown drive children onto Accra’s streets, but cooperation can pull them back.

These children are still at Circle and the other areas mentioned, still begging, and still sleeping on concrete instead of beds. Their presence is a loud reminder of unfinished work. Ghana’s progress will mean little if its capital continues to abandon its youngest citizens.

If you like, I can also create a shorter, punchy version suitable for newspapers or online platforms that grabs attention quickly while keeping the urgency of the issue.

By Eric Gyimah

By Jemima Esinam Kuatsinu

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