How it all started
Anna House was founded on experience and compassion. The company was founded by the current director Ms Margret Akullo. It was established as a respite and later transitioned to a care home out of necessity.
In her own words
Having a daughter that lives with learning disabilities, I faced challenges on getting breaks from caring for her every day. There was only one place where I could take my daughter for respite but it was very far (outside London), while we were based in London. I had a provision of only four weeks in a year, and the journey to that place was long. It took a whole day travelling to get there and another day travelling back, which further reduced my break.
I worked in my daughter’s school as a volunteer support worker and I got to know other
parents that were facing the same challenges as I was. This is because we had formed a group of carers with children with learning disabilities. All of us had one need in common, and that was a break just so that we could catch some rest.
Other than caring for children with learning disabilities, I had experienced caring early on as a young girl. My mother had a mental breakdown and I was the only one that was at home, so, I cared for her until she recovered. I didn’t know that these experiences were preparing me for a life-long career in care.
My struggle and the struggle of other carer-parents that I knew propelled me to find a solution to a shared problem. I also drew confidence from my past experience of caring.
Anna House was started as a respite where parents came to leave their children for short breaks. After a while the demands for long-term stays began to arise. We received a young person who had safeguarding issues and it was ruled that he could not go back to family. This led to Anna House transitioning from respite to a care home. Since then, we started looking after children who have nowhere to go.
Anna House is not a care home like other care homes are known. Our homes are set up to replicate exact family house environment. It is like going to an auntie’s house.
We are not about business; we are providing essential services to the community. We are committed to giving a homely home to our residents which is why we ran only one home for 16 yrs. Our second branch has been opened out of necessity due to the continuity of care for the young adults who turned 18yrs old, in our care. Some parents could not allow their children to go elsewhere due to many years of experiencing our care, thus, our adult branch was birthed.
Our staff have been with us for many years and they were involved in planning the expansion. We count it a privilege to be able to extend a warm care to some of the most vulnerable people in our community, and we do not plan to stop as this is our calling.