23 child workers rescued at Yeji

Arku Jasmine Junior News May - 22 - 2013 , 09:47

Twenty-three children who were engaged in difficult tasks on the Volta Lake have been rescued by a local NGO, Challenging Heights. The children, aged between six and 14 and who looked stunted and malnourished, were rescued in March and April this year.

Almost all the children have contracted diseases such as bilharzia, skin rashes, ear infections, typhoid, hepatitis, among others.

Currently, they are going through counselling and medical care before they will be handed over to their parents.

Narrating his ordeal at a shelter at Swedru to the Junior Graphic, 11-year-old Kofi Mensah, (not real name) who hails from Ewutu Senya in the Central Region said his nightmarish experience started when his mother was ejected from their house.

He said they had nowhere to stay so he was given to a woman, who allegedly sold him to one Kwame and taken to Yeji.

Kofi said while at Yeji, he woke up as early as 2am to cast fishing nets and sometimes dive deep into the water to disentangle trapped nets.

According to him, he would work till 10 am before he took his breakfast and rested around 12 pm.

Before he left for Yeji, Kofi was in Class One and hoped to be re-united with his mother so he could go back to school.

Thirteen -year-old Akosua Adjei (not real name) was sent to Yeji by her aunt under the pretext of taking her to school, instead, she was made to drag nets and process fish.

Akosua, who is the sixth of 10 children, said everyday she ate banku or ' kokonte' with hot pepper and always had stomach upset as a result.

"When I complained of stomach aches and explained to my aunt that I could not work, instead of giving me medicine she would rather beat and insult me" she recalled.

Akosua said she was always sad and missed her mother, but whenever she complained she wanted to go back to her mother, her aunt told her, her time was not due.

Her 10-year-old brother who worked in another community on the lake was also rescued.

The President of the NGO, Mr James Kofi Annan, said since 2005 his outfit had rescued and integrated about thousand children, who were sold into slavery along the Volta Lake.