WHAT WE DO
We're committed to being a beacon of light..
Abuse Relief Corps (A.R.C.) is a non-governmental organization established in 2015. Abuse Relief Corps is a call to women and children living in Ghana suffering from incidents of abuse, in the forms of sexual, psychological, and physical to come forward and seek immediate help. Our offices are in Tema, Greater Accra, and Kumasi, Ashanti Region.
Abuse Relief Corps’ founder Robyn Ern, resides in California and has lived in Ghana for 16 years. He knows firsthand the struggles and abuses women and children face and vowed to make a difference. His motivation was personal, having been a teacher in Ghana and upon learning one of his former students had been raped, he flew back to seek justice. He experienced a path of many obstacles in getting her help, a system which is complex and expensive for the victim and full of loopholes for holding the perpetrator accountable. Most victims weren’t receiving any justice and many were not being relieved from their abusive situations.
Through establishing strong community partnerships, working closely with the local law enforcement, school systems, and doing outreach in the community ARC and its staff have made a huge step in closing the gap between victim and justice/relief. The NGO is donor-funded. With signatories and stakeholders in multiple regions, Abuse Relief Corps is becoming the country’s most effective avenue for action in ensuring accountability for the criminals involved in incidents of abuse, as well as providing access to the care needed for the victims. Abuse Relief Corps works closely with the Ghana Education Department and brings abuse awareness seminars to schools across the nation. Through preparative education, victim support, and assailant accountability, ARC aims to curb the pandemic of abuse.
Victim Support
Abuse Relief Corps (A.R.C.) is a non-governmental organization established in 2015 with its first office and center located in Tema, a sprawling city outside Ghana’s capital, Accra. Abuse Relief Corps U.S. headquarters is located in Santa Cruz, California, U.S.A., and received its 501(C)(3) non-profit status in May of 2015. Abuse Relief Corps is a call to women and children living in Ghana suffering from incidents of abuse, in the forms of sexual, psychological, and physical to come forward and seek immediate help.
Safe House
We have two Women & Children Shelters in Tema & Kumasi (Ghana). The shelters are designed to accommodate, temporarily, victims of abuse, whose such security is jeopardized in their current environment, pending resolution of their cases by the appropriate institutions – Police, Social Welfare, and the Courts. Admissions into the shelter are predominantly through Social Welfare, but in some instances, the police and the courts. In all these situations, we offer temporary shelter to the victims and immediate family members/caregivers if the victim is a minor.
Self Defense Training
We have partnered up with the Ghana Education department and we run sensitisation seminars regarding physical & sexual abuse through the Ghanaian schools, including self defense classes for female students. Raising awareness changes the behavior and instills empathy into the views that are held.
Without being sensitive to the needs of people around us or particular groups, then an individual may refrain from understanding those people, groups, or even him or herself. Raising awareness about incidents regarding abuse, and how to qualify them as abuse, and how to seek help.
Community Outreach
We are persistent in our daily outreach. Community outreach and mobilization can encompass a range of interventions and approaches, including: door by door interactions, community meetings; training or sensitization sessions with traditional authorities, community or religious leaders; and at other cultural activities and demonstrations.
ARC Surgery
We have completed over 50 life saving / changing surgeries on children. Many of these children grow up in destitute and whose family has no financial resources to help. These children would have died with no medical attention. We’ve worked with the best local hospitals & surgeons to deliver service to those children in the most need, with incredible results.
Helping Abandoned Children
Currently, when a child is abandoned, there is a period of time that they may go without care before local authorities are able to find a home for them. During the transition we house and finance the care giving costs for abandoned children before a more permanent home is found for them to be placed in. We built a shelter to accommodate their needs, and now employ 18 local staff to run it.