The other day a woman whod heard of my interest in Ghana from a mutual acquaintance called to tell me about her visit to Ghana last month. Shed gone there to learn about the work of James Kofi Annan and Challenging Heights, the organization he has dedicated to ending forced child labor in Ghana. Annan comes from Winneba, the lovely seaside town that some in this group, I know, remember fondly from school holidays there. From my caller Ive learned that since those days (for me the 60s), Winneba has become one of the most bountiful places to find boys to work in the fishing industry -- not on the coast, where fathers and sons have fished for thousands of years, but far inland around Lake Volta, which, as you all know, didnt begin to emerge until Akosambo Dam was completed in 1965. There is no fishing tradition in that formerly forested region, but now that the world’s largest man-made lake is full of fish (some from upriver, most from introduced stock), there is a very productive fishing industry, and boys who know how to weave, cast and mend nets are in high demand. Those boys are found in coastal communities such as Winneba. Annan was one of them, so he knows whats going on. Well-dressed men and women arrive in impressive cars, park under the palms above the beach when the fishing boats are coming in off the ocean, and announce that theyre recruiting students for a school up north. This school charges no fees; in fact it pays parents the equivalent of $50 for each boy and assures them that he’ll return home in two years with a good education and modern skills. A trotro with a reasonable inscription comes around to pick up 20 or 30 children and take them away as their families wave goodbye. Some return years later, uneducated and skilled only in surviving slavery. Many are never seen again. Canoes on the lake are not as sturdy as those on the ocean; they capsize easily. Tree branches under the surface snare fishing nets; boys are made to dive down to untangle them, and they too get caught and injured or drowned. When they’re too weak and broken to work anymore, they’re expelled from the camps and left to beg for food. Annan is one of the fortunate few to have made it home. That’s not enough for him, though; he’s gone back to the lake with rescue parties and brought others home. But that involves paying more “dash” to local policemen than the fishing operations do, and he doesnt have industry profits to use. It’s more effective to make sure the boys never leave home to begin with, and to that end he’s built a school in Winneba -- one that actually provides the good education and modern skills that the deceitful traffickers promise. The students (girls as well as boys) live with their families, and some continue to fish and mend nets alongside their fathers. Annan’s foundation, Challenging Heights, also runs rehabilitation and job-training programs for former child slaves in Winneba and other communities. Challenging Heights has earned the support of international children’s rights organizations; more important, it is beginning to win allies in the Ghanaian government who are crucial in the campaign to raise public awareness of trafficking and slavery and in strengthening child labor laws. You can learn more about Challenging Heights (including how you can help) at this link: challengingheights.org
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 20:41:34 +0000
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