Rosanne and Mark Rosen are the Founders of GlobalGrandparenting.

We returned home filled with hope after witnessing the wonderful rescue of 22 trafficked children from the remote islands in Ghana’s Lake Volta.  After a firsthand look at the coordinated efforts of dedicated local volunteers in the lakeside community of Kete Krachi and the International Organization of Migration, we know more children can and will be rescued.

As a result of extreme poverty, the 19 rescued boys, ages 6 through 15, had been sold into servitude in many cases by their parents for meager sums of money to fishing masters for whom they would work in exchange for food and shelter.  The reality was grueling hours of labor, dangerous dives setting fishing nets under water, frequent beatings, one meal a day, no chance to attend school and often little financial remittance to parents. 
    
Of the three girls rescued, Peace, age 7, was the youngest.  Girls’ tasks included helping the mistress in their mud-dried homes, cooking, taking care of other children, smoking fish and then carrying heavy baskets of them to the markets on shore for sale.  The fear and tentativeness evident among the girls, particularly Peace, quietly indicated the probability of abuse.
    
Fortunately the rescue project includes education of parents, tribal chiefs and masters about the fundamental wrong of trafficking and teaches better ways to fish without using child labor.  These efforts along with the promise of new fishing nets and the threat of future punishment should masters buy other children provide the real possibility of eliminating further trafficking among specific tribes. 
    
Following a 3 and a half month stay in a secure rehabilitation center outside of Accra where the children receive medical attention, psychological counseling and educational testing, they are reunited with their parents under sufficient and prolonged supervision.  Financial assistance is provided to cover the care and educational costs of the trafficked children and interest free loans are made available to parents to assist them in starting small businesses or buying livestock.
    
We hope you will join GlobalGrandparenting in giving children back their childhood and providing a sustained effort to change their lives. 
    
Seeing childish smiles bud after rescue and feeling appreciative, affectionate hugs when we said goodbye will remain with us forever.

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Tags: Children, ghana, globalgrandparenting

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 6th, 2008 at 9:00 am by RosanneRosen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.