SVD to construct refuge centre

A refuge centre, to be located at a place easily accessible to abused children and the youth, is to be constructed by the Ghana Province of the Divine Word Missionaries (SVD).
The centre, estimated at GH¢ 2.4 million, will be named Rev Fr Martin Wels Refuge Centre.

The Parish Priest of the Church of King Catholic Church, Rev Fr Andrew Campbell, announced this at a press conference ahead of the launch of the 75th Anniversary celebration of SVD.

Rev Campbell said when completed, the refuge centre would give solace and opportunity for rehabilitation to many children “who have been subjected to constant abuse and are living in fear and hopelessness”.

“These children stand in danger of losing their God-given happy childhood. You see them every day in our streets, lorry stations and under the traffic lights. Some may be hawking wares, often heavier than they should carry,”he said.

According to Rev Campbell, the project formed part of programmes to mark the anniversary of the SVD, adding “we shall continue to pursue, as a  cardinal obligation of our mission, the spiritual growth, as well as to attend to the well-being of the people, especially the marginalised”.

Who are the SVD

The Divine Word Missionaries are members of an International Catholic Religious Missionary Congregation.

Founded by a German Diocesan Priest, St Anrold Janssen in 1875 in Steyl, in the Netherland, it came to Ghana, then the Gold Coast on October 13, 1938 after Rev Fr Alphonse Elsbernd, the first SVD missionary arrived.

Rev Campbell said the mission of the SVD “ is to work where the gospel has not been preached at all or only insufficiently and where the local church is not viable on its own.

“The congregation therefore has as its slogan ‘the World is our Parish’, he said.

About the Anniversary

Rev Campbell said the official launch of the anniversary would be on October 13, this year, at the Christ the King Parish Hall in Accra, adding that the climax would be on November 22, this 2014.

The theme of the celebration is “75 years of SVD Evangelisation in Ghana: Knowing, Living and Sharing the Word of God”.

Appeal for support

Rev Campbell called on corporate institutions and individuals to assist the Divine Word Missionaries to bring into fruition the completion of the centre.

“By this we can help to restore hope in our otherwise doomed youth; else we will only stand by as we witness a generation of lost childhood slip by,” he added.

By Dominic Moses Awiah/Daily Graphic/Ghana