Misleading information about a NTHU-sponsored orphanage in Ghana

The National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) has, according to its own account, a long and proud history. Originally established in Beijing in 1911, it was relocated to Taiwan in 1956 where it enjoys a solid reputation as a serious, high-quality public institution. It is located in the city of Hsinchu and is today "consistently ranked as one of the premier universities in Taiwan", as well as "widely recognized as the best incubator for future leaders in industries as well as academics."

On their website, the National Tsing Hua University presents its Learning by Service program, where students of the university are sent out to various sites around the world, with the aim of contributing to serious charity work and offering their knowledge to those in need. One of the available programs is in Ghana, and it is run by Joy Tang and the OneVillage Foundation since 2008.

But is the NTHU aware that their students are being set to work for a fraudulent organization, and that their activities are contributing to strengthening the illusion that OVF is a legitimate charity?

The National Tsing Hua University reports that in 2010, the students of the Ghana program raised funds for a local orphanage:

"A large portion of the fee collected from this operation went to the local orphanage to support their programs."
National Tsing Hua University, Cover Story: Learning by Service (2010)

The orphanage in question calls itself the "Stoughton's Horizon Children's Home" and has a wiki page on OVF's so called Open Digital Village Wiki, which has been set up by the NTHU students at the initiative of Joy Tang. It is run by an acquaintance of Joy Tang - Ms Agnes Ampong - and was set up in 2008; the same year that the NTHU - OVF Ghana partnership was established. Although they claim to have 12 "orphans" in their care, the "orphanage" is not legally registered (which was confirmed by telephone communication with Ms Ampong on March 12th, 2011) and is therefore operating illegally, under no supervision of the Ghana authorities.

According to the report by the NHTU students, the orphanage home was set up under most peculiar circumstances. They were told that the home was established because wild elephants supposedly had trampled a large number of fields, resulting in Ghanaian families actually ABANDONING their children, (rather than leaving them in the care of the larger family network that is the basis for African society and which explains why one will find a small number of orphans who are not taken care of any family member even in the poorest of African countries; unless they have been ravaged by civil war). On the Stoughton Home's wiki page, the NTHU students write:

"As a result of many years of elephants destroying vast fields of crops and even cocoa pods in Kakum National Park surrounding villages, many children became homeless and abandoned."
WODIV, Horizon Orphanage, Project Justification (2009)

The OVF's own website presents the support of the Stoughton's Horizon Children's Home as one of its accomplishments in Ghana. There is no mention whatsoever, however, of the fact that the orphanage (in reality sponsored by the NTHU students and not by OVF) is not legally registered. The collaboration between OVF Ghana and the Stoughton's Horizon Children's Home is described as one of the programs outlined for the 2010 Ghana "OVF-NTHU Eco-Tour" and labeled an "orphanaged camp" activity.

"During the Orphanage Camp, the team will interact and have fun games with kids at the Stoughton Horizon Orphanage, Jukwa, whiles finding out their real needs and how OVF can help meet them."
oneVillage Foundation, Holistic ICT for Living: The 2010 HTSU students have arrived! (2010)

Although the oneVillage Foundation itself lacks a legal structure and is therefore itself raising money illegally, it refers to its Ecotour program as a "humanitarian project", which is focused on servicing orphanages in the central region of Ghana. According to OVF, the students:

"...documented the stories in the orphanages visited, to make their stories voiced via Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools, such as blogs. With the information online, there is no doubt that people around the world can hear their stories, which helps to run these orphanages continuously and deliver endless hopes for children."
oneVillage Foundation, Holistic ICT for Living: The 2010 HTSU students have arrived! (2010)

According to the NTHU students, they serviced the Stoughton home with 320 books, 44 toys, 43 pieces of clothing, one "bag of stationary" and a first aid kit. More details are given by the OVF itself, writing that the NTHU students presented Ms Ampong with "books, toys and other items collected from donors and well wishers in Taiwan". They categorized the books and tried to teach two of the teenage boys to do so themselves. The students also taught the children in Ms Ampong's care how to play a Taiwanese game called "Tuoluo", do paper design cuttings and "other things". Further, the NTHU students provided the home with "some light bulbs for the reading corner and other rooms" while OVF itself "sponsored painting of the interior and exterior of the home."

The painting job sponsored by the OVF of the Stoughton home may very well have been necessary to make the building look more legitimate for the students' arrival.

According to Ms Ampong, it was the promises of Joy Tang of the OVF to support the orphanage financially in 2008 which led to the home being opened. But to this date, the Stoughton Home has yet to receive any funding from Ms Tang or the oneVillage Foundation, and are left to seek donations from elsewhere. Now, why the orphanage after three years of supposed operations still has not been legally registered with the authorities in Ghana is a question Ms Ampong cannot answer.

Any serious NGO would not be involved with an orphanage that does not stand under the supervision of any serious institution and the local authorities. Who will ensure that these children are not being exploited? Who is taking responsibility for their wellfare? Ms. Ampong herself is fully employed at her daytime job at the Kakum National Forest Park.

Is the National Tsing Hua University - a reputable institution with numerous partnerships - aware of the fact that it is sending trusting and eager students to a foreign country to volunteer at an UNREGISTERED charity (the Stoughton Home) through an organisation (OVF) that itself lacks the basic legal structure required by all NGOs to operate legally? There are several questions which the NTHU needs to consider: Questions for NTHU.