Modern Day Slavery in Ghana: What’s Being Done to Combat It?
As a portion of the Calvin-Sewanee Ghana semester abroad program, students are mandated to participate in an interim program which takes place during the month of January. A large portion of this interim is spent travelling across Ghana and visiting NGOs, historical sites, etc. One NGOs we visited was Challenging Heights; an organization dedicated to ending human trafficking inside Ghana since 2003. While touring the Challenging Heights facilities we were educated on the intricacies of human trafficking, specifically within the sector child labor. Challenging Heights has a general focus on the forced child labor that was being enforced on Lake Volta, the largest man-made lake in the world.
Throughout my life, I have been exposed to the horror of human trafficking but I never fully grasped what that meant and the implications it imposed. During our time at Challenging Heights I was educated on the roots of human trafficking, which usually stems from poverty, unawareness, family separation, high profit/low risk, along with poor systemic policy implementation. However, the last two were the origins that seemed to resonate with me.
When discussing the matter of the child labor, the leaders at Challenging Heights revealed that the children forced into this modern version of slavery, are essentially bought (generally from family members) for approximately 80 Ghanaian cedis. Or roughly twenty US dollars. Since the children are bought for such a cheap price and yield such great profits they are the “best” option for slave owners. Even if a child dies because of risky labor, like fetching a fishnet that is several feet under the water’s surface, the profit still harvests far too great for any other means of labor. Along with this high profit/low risk reality, the government does little to interfere or deter the deplorable practice in African society, which leaves NGOs such as Challenging Heights to aid the children who are trapped in this lifestyle.
Challenging Heights is heavily involved in the opposition of human trafficking, especially with youths, children, and women, in Ghana. They function off the famous “Theory of Change” which is fueled by the idea that change must start on an individual level, and then societal, and finally the systemic level. Once one has effectively changed all three levels, the issue afflicting the people will dissolve. Challenging Heights is presently working on all three levels but seem to have a grip on primarily the societal level at this time. They run rehabilitation programs, largely through their school close to their location, which focuses on the children they rescue from child labor sites. They emphasize areas such as health, basic education, vocational training, and nutrition as the core of their rehabilitation programs. They also run a livelihood program which seeks to incorporate people from their program into a profit granting job. After this process is complete, Challenging Heights maintains a relationship with its associates through a monitoring program to make sure they are reintegrating into society effectively.
Challenging Heights has achieved great success in their few years of existence. However, they are lacking employees who are needed for research positions. The leaders at Challenging Heights voice that they largest challenge is merely knowing the facts that surround their interests. Since little research has been done over the subject of human trafficking in Ghana, it is difficult to discern how many individuals live in slavery. While they still lack information regarding the topic, Challenging Heights has publicly announced an ambitious ten year plan to end child labor in the nation of Ghana.
It is through organizations like Challenging Heights that countries who maintain high rates of human trafficking can preserve optimism. Hopefully, soon organizations can collaborate, and with active participation of the government sector, end modern slavery as we know it.