“If you look at everything, it revolves around single moms,” Johnbull said. A young boy working on the lake. Give a Rescued Child from Ghana School Supplies $80.00 Give this gift. It was through Achibra, PACODEP and the Polish-based Kulczyk Foundation, which supports them, that CNN met Adam. sensitive with very touching portrayal of what these children were subjected to… thanks for the insight into this plight. Hoping to cast a light on the child exploitation taking place in Ghana’s thriving fishing industry, Paul Nevison’s Lake Volta provides a firsthand account of the experience of a young boy sold into bonded labour on the world’s largest man-made lake and the years of brutal servitude he and many like him have been forced to endure. Because, she said, even though the age of the children has changed since the practice began, some parents still consider the children's work on the lake part of a natural 'socialization process.'. Some organizations, he said, provide micro-grants to fishermen and parents alike so they can improve or start up their own businesses. A new special FTS series profiles children who have survived slavery on Ghana’s Lake Volta. “But, I can say that, when you go on the lake and cruise for one hour, you can meet not less than 20 different canoes, and each one of them might have at least one child or two children in it.”. We have a nationally recognised recovery centre. Countless counter-trafficking organizations work in Ghana, includingPartners in Community Development Programme (PACODEP), Touch A Life, Free the Slaves, Challenging Heights and many others. He was later rescued from slavery. MIHOSO works to provide public health education, social and organisational development interventions to communities. “We have a lot of shelters around, but we don't have shelters,” Peasah began. Y – Generation Against Poverty Australia agreed to fund the Faith Roots International Academy. At the Rehabilitation Center in Accra, the children receive medical, psychological and educational services for three months. As the world around Lake Volta moved and changed, Esther and the other children living in slavery were stuck in an endless loop of work, monotony and hunger. At one point, there was a shout from Samuel. For its part, the government in Ghana is aware of the problem and working, albeit slowly, to remove children. Johnbull himself grew up on the streets of Nigeria without parents or guidance. If your son stays with me for three years, the family normally requests a cow.”. After researching the situation, workers rescue the children fishermen have agreed to release, often in exchange for a micro-grant, new supplies or the opportunity to learn a new trade. Believing their children will attend school and work in the evenings, parents sell their children for as little as $20 a year. At stake, the freedom of six children. First though, Samuel was asked to explain how he came to obtain the children he now enslaves. But, he said, many of the teenagers eventually rebelled, not wanting to become fishermen. Catch up on the latest news videos from around the world. The Akosombo Dam provides electricity for much of the country, as well as for export to Togo, Benin, and nearby countries, to earn foreign exchange. It reminded me of my childhood, how I grew up.”. Covering 8,502 km2, it is the biggest reservoir by surface area, and the fourth largest on the planet by volume (148 km3). Rent a Boat for a Rescue Operation $300.00 + “The expansion has been really great,” Stacy said, “but we're already outgrowing this building.”. “We see City of Refuge, this place, being a model for additional campuses like this,” she said. Meet Foli: Child Slavery on Lake Volta Thousands of children between the ages of 6 and 18 live in slavery on Lake Volta, working up to 18 hours a day in the fishing industry. “We want to prosecute,” Peasah said. Adam is just one of 20,000 children on Lake Volta who the International Labour Organization reports are working for slave masters. Achibra says, in their experience, it’s nearly impossible to reunite the children with their families, because the parents are the ones who sold them in the first place. The dam now supplies all of Ghana’s electricity, with the surplus sold to neighboring countries. “I try to build a rapport with the master,” says Achibra. She remembers her disappointment when asking if she could ever go to school. Anti-trafficking TV and radio programs broadcasted throughout the country reach an even larger audience. But that law is rarely enforced. When asked how he feels about putting children in danger to enrich himself, Samuel’s answer is startling: “If one of the children dies while working on the lake, I sit down with the parents and we talk.”, We all know that working on the lake is very dangerous and anything can happen,” says Samuel. According to Peasah, only those who partake in extreme and obvious trafficking are successfully convicted. Very little information exists as to the exact prevalence of slavery in the fishing sector around Lake Volta. “What this typically requires is to sit down with the family, with a mother or father or relative, sit down with them and agree on terms before you take the child. Nowhere.”. CORM never pays for the release of a child. A book of images is published by Setanta , … Parents are told their children will attend school in exchange for a few hours of work. London Clark says: June 10th, 2009 at 4:25 pm Peasah suggested organizations should support the parents and reintegrate children into their homes, instead. Children, not knowing any better, sometimes say the fishermen are their fathers or relatives, which compounds the problem. Ghana. “They had these young, young kids who are very submissive and obedient. By 9am, they had spent several hours on the boat. Already, he said, he's seen change. They were abused, held under threat of violence, unable to walk away. “I've never felt that way before in all of my life. The fearful part is that you might not come back,” Adam says. He was also rescued and given an education. “We haven’t started implementation yet,” says Prince Latif Oyekunle, the Deputy Chief Executive of the Krachi West District. It started in the pre-dawn hours. After another long, hot day, as the sun arcs its way to the other side of the lake, George says his goodbyes to Samuel and joins a convoy headed back to the lake. There is also an effort to register all the boats on the lake, which could make it easier to track down and punish fishermen using child slaves. Short snappy articles are read not long winded pages and pages. “I believe that we cannot do it all. “When you rehabilitate (the children) and you give the mother some help, the facilities open,” he said. He will turn over two boys immediately, including Adam. In these areas this is about the same as the price of a cow. “For example, if police go and do police raid — we've done that before — and we have hundreds of children, where do you take them? The families of local children pay a small tuition fee to help cover the costs of caring for, feeding and educating former child slaves. Watch the full documentary, “Troubled Waters,” about child slavery on Lake Volta. “That is something really good, something we're really happy about.”, According to Natsu, the government is also working to create awareness so parents and fishermen will know trafficking is not proper. Ghana. Children are being sold as slaves for as little as $37 in African countries such as Ghana. The lake was only created in 1965, when Ghana constructed a hydro-electric dam downstream, using funds from the Word Bank, the United States, and the United Kingdom. It may not be the last time these two boys board a boat on Lake Volta, but it’s the first time they’ve done so in freedom. “The first point of protection should be the family and the community.”. Four or five decades ago, Peasah explained, fishermen brought children or nephews who'd already finished middle school to learn the trade and carry on the family practice. The government, too, recognizes that preventing trafficking means alleviating poverty. The group of boys will spend the better part of the day fishing under a hot equatorial sun. “Some people might think because the lake is so big, it would be difficult to find them (child slaves). Sold by their parents, around 20,000 children work on the lake, enslaved by the fishermen they call “master.”. Two days later and back at the village, negotiations began in earnest under the shade of a thatched roof. “There are 78 boys that we help today. Source: maps4news.com/@HERE. PACODEP is a Ghana-based non-profit which rescues the children they meet on the lake, then provides them with shelter and a chance to go to school. “Every morning we wake up and we go to the lake, we paddle, remove the nets,” says Adam. Adam’s head lowered. “But one thing I can say, is in this world, if you don’t set a trap, you can’t catch fish. Other plans include building a clinic, looking into sustenance farming and completing a third dormitory that will hold almost 40 boys — the girls will stay in the two existing dorms. He estimates he’s worked for Samuel, the man he calls “master,” for around three years. “Today we are talking of modern day slavery,” she said. The chief of Shai Hills, when he heard about their plan, offered the land in Doryumu in exchange for free education for one needy child from each of the eight local clans. Lake Volta, one of the world’s largest man-made lakes, was created by the construction of Ghana’s Askombo dam in the 1960s. A message inscribed on each water sachet, including the words, “children are not for sale,” helps spread the word about the issue. “No one can really give you an exact figure,” said Eric Peasah, founder of Right To Be Free and former field manager of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) counter-trafficking project. Prosecution Ghana's 2005 Human Trafficking Act criminalizes the practice on the lake, and treaties such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child — ratified by Ghana in 1990, before any other country — discourage child labor and human trafficking. Others contract illnesses such as bilharzia, which can lead to bloody diarrhea and abdominal pain, from the parasite-infested lake. Identifying children working for someone who is not related to them, then engaging in sometimes protracted negotiations with the fisherman. They flew back to Ghana in 2007, enduring a sometimes road-less, 17-hour drive before arriving at the lake. But Achibra sees it differently. A trip to the Volta Region in eastern Ghana reveals children as young as 4 and rarely older than 13 starting their 15-hour workdays as early as 4 a.m. and ending well after dark, seven days a week. Challenging Heights protects children from modern slavery and child trafficking in Ghana’s fishing industry on Lake Volta. Anything can happen on the lake.”. Achibra had first encountered the boat with Adam and his master, Samuel, several days earlier. Narrating his ordeal to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) Koomson, 31, and a renowned fisherman in the area said he had been fishing on Volta Lake for … Slavery on Lake Volta 6 Results. So in order to live, you have to find a way.”, In Ghana, the minimum age for workers is 15. “But we have discussed it at the executive committee meeting and at some general assembly meetings and a go ahead has been given.”. 3 hours ago, Atta Mills Presidential Library project will be ready by May... In the lakeside town of Kete Krachi, a fishing net is laid out to be checked before being taken back to the lake. In Ghana, European-built slave forts and castles scatter along the coast — most notably those at Elmina and Cape Coast — and serve as reminders of the central role the country played in the trans-Atlantic slave trade more than 200 years ago. 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