Child Labour and Child Trafficking remains a huge challenge in cocoa growing and fishing communities in the Volta and Oti regions, particularly areas where poverty and limited access to education as well as the lack of will to enforce child protection laws to prevent the cycle of exploitation.
Statistics has indicated that 27% of in the Volta Region are engaged in child labour with 22% involved in hazardous form of labour. In Oti Region, Krachi-West has the largest number of children involved in labour with 22.8% girls and 25.77% being boys.
The Head of Infrastructure and Sustainable Development at the European Union in Ghana, Paulina Rozycka was speaking after the launch of a 13 million Ghana cedis European Union and partners 3 years project to end child labour in cocoa growing and fishing communities at Dambai in Oti region.
The project is dubbed: “My Rights, My Future”. “Every child deserves the opportunity to learn, grow and thrive to assume responsible position.”
The Head of Infrastructure and Sustainable Development noted that the challenges of children who are out of school and engaged in fishing and on cocoa farms is beyond the imagination of citizens, hence the decision by European Union to support team players in tackling the challenges to ensure that these children are rescued and offered formal education.
According to her EU believes that every child deserves to grow up in a safe and nurturing environment, free from exploitation, to indicate that some fishing and cocoa growing communities that one out of five children who are forced into dangerous and exploitative labour should be a thing of the past. It is estimated that over 770,000 children are engaged in child labour in the cocoa growing sector alone.
These figures certainly “send shivers down the spine of the body of European Union” which calls for a collective action by stakeholders to
eradicate child labour and trafficking in the two regions,
Miss Rozycka said it is the reason for which European Union has partnered with three able child-oriented organisations, Right to Play, Partners in Community Development Programme (PACODEP) and Allience for Community Resilience and Development (ACRAD) and local stakeholders to launch this ambitious initiative.
She disclosed that over the next 3 years of the project, it is expected to protect about 4,800 vulnerable children in these affected communities and offer them employable skills training to enable them not only be self-reliant but also contribute favourably to the country’s socio-economic growth.
The Programmes Director of Right to Play International, Evans Sinkari said the 3-year project intends to create real opportunities to learn, play and make strides in their respective area of learning as stakeholders to ensure that their rights are fully protected for them to realise their full potentials.
He disclosed that with support from European Union, the project would be intensified across the four selected districts in the two regions, Krachi-East and West, Kadjebi and Kpando districts.
Mr. Sinkari was emphatic that they would come up with child protection committees to enable them at all times respond quickly to child labour issues such as help children who have dropped out to return to school as well as engage parents, caregivers and community leaders to stop harmful practices. They would also ensure awareness creation with the aim of ensuring that child rights are positively tackled.
The Oti Regional Minister, John Kwadwo Gyapong who identified areas where children’s rights are being abused blamed the situation on parents whose love for money is beyond anything else, thus offer them in- exchange for money. He said such must be condemned to no uncertain terms, “our children are not slaves and should not be offered in exchange for money.”
The Regional Minister stressed the need for stiffer punishment be meted out to parents who flout their children’s rights to serve as deterrent to others who have plans to offer their children in exchange for money.
Mr Gyapong pledged the preparedness of the Oti Regional Coordinating Council to support the project as he called on chiefs, opinion leaders and members of civil society organisations to cooperate and collaborate with the right to play and other partners to allow their dreams of eradicating child labour and trafficking in the region to become a reality.
In a speech read for the Director- General of Ghana Education Service by the Director for Childhood Education, Adiza Tarsa said that the education directorate as part of its collaborative effort to ensure success of the project, would embark on a concerted effort to raise awareness among parents to know the harm their negative actions cause to their children.
She also pledged the commitment of the directorate to work hand-in- hand with national and local authorities to ensure that the existing child protection laws are not just on paper but are actively enforced and make resources available to safeguard children’s future.
Madam Tarsa urged all collaborative team members and parents to use the launching ceremony to reaffirm their commitment to their children and invest to protect their rights and help them to realise their full potentials.
The Oti Region’s Director of Labour, Richard J. Adraku appealed to the Regional Minister and the Coordinating Council not to allow the status quo remain after the project duration but allow routine checks to be consistent to realise the significance of the 3-year project.
