MONROVIA – The Antoinette Tubman Cheshire Home (ATCH), a safe home that caters to individuals mostly children with cerebral palsy and other forms of physical and mental disabilities has called on the public for support in order to take care of the children who they said were abandoned after birth by their parents due to their deformity.
Listing several challenges facing the operation of the safe home, a board member of the group, Madam Marian Browne said, “We are rallying the support of central government, humanitarians and the general public in keeping the dream of the home alive.”
The Antoinette Tubman Cheshire home (ATCH) is a charitable institution in Monrovia and for almost four decades, the institution has catered to individuals mostly children with physical and mental disabilities.
Madam Browne said, the rehabilitation of the facility, hiring specialized doctors, salary incentive for workers, security, cook, provision of food, and sanitary materials and many others are among the major constrains the home is confronted with presently.
At the Antoinette Tubman Cheshire Home Family Christmas season fun-fair, the safe home was opened to several prominent individuals, among them were, the son of President George Weah, Champ Weah, the Senator of Montserrado County Abraham Darius Dillon, Minister of Youths and Sports Zogar Wilson.
Madam Browne praised Minister Wilson for his support toward the upkeep of the safe home. She applauded both Weah Jr. and Senator Dillon for showing up to grace their occasion.
At the event, some staff and donors who have been supportive to the home were honored by the broad of the Antoinette Tubman Cheshire Home.
The Antoinette Tubman Cheshire Home, established 1985, was named in honor of Antoinette Louise Padmore Tubman, wife of former Liberian head of state Williams S. Tubman and has been catering to the less fortunate in the society majority of who were abandoned by their parents due to their deformity.
The safe home during it early days was heavily supported by the former first lady of Liberia as well as the government in the past. Presently, the safe home is being operated at the mercy of the public.
“I do not get anything from government to run the home; everything is being done by friends, donors, and goodwill citizens. We have engaged the ministry of gender because we were told they’re supposed to provide welfare for the home, but to no avail,” she said.
“The majority of these residents are mentally challenged; we have a committed catering staff that make only US$30.00 dollars as take home pay,” Browne revealed. She further “We are two months back with pay and we want to put smile on their faces by giving them some incentive.”
The home currently houses 32 persons: 15 residents and 17 staff members, but she noted that the condition of these individuals are unthinkable, as such there is a need for government to look in that direction.
“We get called by the government, sometimes the ministry of gender and even the public about these children who are being abandoned, we usher them in without a cost, but even so, we are not even captured in the Budget,” she stated.