Yeji, Ghana

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On my first week in Ghana the Projects Abroad Human Rights Office went on an outreach to Yeji, a small fishing village by the Volta Lake. We were accompanying Challenging Heights (www.challengingheights.org), a Ghanaian NGO working to end child trafficking in the communities that surround the Volta Lake. The purpose of the trip was to meet with students in the area to raise awareness about the dangers and illegality of child trafficking. Yeji is a hotspot of trafficking, with many of the children trafficked from the poor coastal areas to this part of Ghana. In many cases the children are sold for less than £25, with the parents being tricked into thinking the children will be treated well and integrated into their new communities. In practise most of the children work as helpers for the fishermen, living in brutal conditions where beatings are common place and the idea of going to school the stuff of dreams. As part of the outreach we travelled to the village of Nkwanta on the 4th March. We spoke with the Village Chief who gave us the names of 6 trafficked children, presumably in the hope that we would not report him to the police. When we travelled back to Accra we brought 6 children from the coast back to Challenging Heights office in Accra. There the children will be given counselling and reunited with their families.

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