The family of a 5-year-old boy whose left hand was cut by his stepmother, is accusing the Gender Minister of failing to fulfil her promise to take care of the child.

They say Cynthia Morrison promised to send Isaac [not his real name] to a school she owns at Agona Swedru in the Central Region, where she will take care of him till he completes his secondary education.

However, the family claims Isaac is at the Osu Children’s Home in Accra.

The family, therefore, wants the Minister to return the boy to them to care for him if she won’t fulfil her promise.

In January this year, doctors at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital successfully amputated Isaac’s arm after his stepmother assaulted him with a cutlass.

She told the police her intention to hit the boy with a cutlass she was holding as a punishment for defecating on himself, ended up cutting his left hand.

According to her, she did her best to treat the wound with hot water but Isaac did not oblige.

The boy was not sent to the hospital until two other people who went to the village, saw his condition and reported to the Social Welfare Department.

The stepmother and his father were subsequently prosecuted.

The Gender Minister, who said she runs a school, promised that once he was discharged from the hospital, she will personally take care of him.

“He is going to have education that is going to be sponsored by me, not by the Ministry. Any other monies that come in, I would make sure that we have a fixed account opened for him and ensure that nobody touches that money,” Madam Morrison said then.

These assurances gave many people hope.

But five months down the line, Isaac is neither at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital nor at the Minister’s school at Swedru.

Joy News’ Richard Kwadwo Nyarko’s followed up and found Isaac at the Osu Children’s Home.

This has incurred the wrath of the five-year-old’s family who only agreed to let him go after the Madam Morrison intervened.

His grandmother, Victoria Mensah, who had been involved right after the incident happened, wants Isaac returned to her custody. 

“The Minister’s words were clear enough but now the boy finds himself in a children’s home and we are displeased with this development. We are pleading to be supported to take care of him and not have him in an orphanage,” she said. 

Isaac’s uncle, Enoch Mensah, who has visited him at the orphanage said there was no way the child would be allowed to stay at the Osu Children’s Home. 

When Joy News made inquiries from the Gender Minister, she indicated the child was still with her and sent pictures of her and Isaac via WhatsApp to back her claim.