What We Do: Child Trafficking

The OH Freedom Project

The Underlying Causes of Slavery

What do you sell when you do not have enough money for food, drinking water, or health care and have no prospects of employment on the horizon? Many parents are faced with this dilemma, and the answer for them is one they would not have envisioned: sell the only thing they have left — one of their children. For if they sell one child, then they may be able to feed the other children for some time. It is a feeling of hopelessness that prompts parents to make this unbearable decision, and poverty is at the root of the problem.

Many parents are approached by fishermen, cocoa plantation owners, or businessmen and told that if they sell their child to them, he or she will learn a trade and be able to earn money to support the family. This sounds like it may be a good opportunity for the child and the family. Parents who sell their children believe they are making the best choice for the whole family. What they do not know is that their child is subjected to hours of hard labor under hazardous conditions, deprived of an education, often beaten, and not given enough food to eat. Many girls are sold into a life of servitude as sex slaves.

The issue of child slavery is complex. Orphans’ Heroes (OH) launched the OH Freedom Project to address some of the underlying issues of child slavery in Ghana. Orphans’ Heroes president, Jennifer Millett-Barrett, has conducted research in impoverished villages of Ghana and discussed with families some of the issues they face. She talked with family members who had made the decision to sell their children. Jennifer visited a community of fishermen on Lake Volta to conduct research on the issues they face and the reasons why they buy young children to work on their boats. She has interviewed social welfare officers and members of the Ghana Police force to understand the issues they face in addressing the issues of slavery.

Slavery in Ghana

Girls Sold as Sex Slaves

The sex trafficking industry is an enormous problem throughout the world. Ghanaian children fall victim to years in servitude as house servants and sex slaves within the country, and are also trafficked out of the country. They are robbed of their childhood, dignity, and future, and are abused beyond our imaginations.

Within Ghana, there are an estimated 5,000 young girls and women enslaved under a custom known as Trokosi (an Ewe word meaning “slave of the Gods”). This is a religious and cultural practice in which young girls (usually virgins) are sent into lifelong servitude to atone for the alleged crimes of their relatives. In spite of Trokosi being outlawed in 1998 and carrying a minimum three-year sentence for conviction, this ritual is still practiced by the Ewe Tribe in the Volta Region of Ghana. The girls are forced to work without pay or clothing, and perform sexual services for the holy man. There are an estimated 345 such shrines in Ghana.

Children Working on Lake Volta

Many fishermen are not proud of the fact that they use children — often times, their own children as well — to work on the boats. They say that it is a matter of economics. They simply are not making enough money to live on from the amount of fish they are taking in each month. They use children because they cannot afford to pay adult men to do the work, and feel they have no other choice, as they cannot make ends meet. The fishermen we talked with could not afford to send their own children to school and did not have enough money to purchase health cards.

Reportedly, cocoa plantation owners face the same issues. While big chocolate companies in America and Europe make huge profits off of chocolate, plantation owners justify using child labor because they get little return on their cocoa.

How Orphans’ Heroes is Making a Difference

With the underlying problem of child slavery in Ghana being poverty and lack of education, the OH Freedom Project will address these issues from a few angles.

Prevention

Many parents sell their children due lack of resources and an inability to care for and educate their children. Thus, our health care, water, and education efforts indirectly contribute to fewer children being sold into slavery.

Support of Children Rescued from Trafficking

There are several government-run and private organizations in Ghana that dedicate their efforts to rescuing children from slavery. Orphans’ Heroes collaborates with these agencies to support their efforts by assisting with sponsorship of children rescued from trafficking.

Education

Orphans’ Heroes is committed to informing consumers in America and Europe that child slavery still exists and many of the products they purchase may have been made at the expense of children. For instance, educating people that some major chocolate companies purchase cocoa from West African cocoa farmers who use children to pick their cocoa, will hopefully drive sales down and encourage those companies to purchase their cocoa from plantations that do not engage in child labor. We urge people to buy Fair Trade products. Please see the Do More section for a list of Fair Trade companies.

Our hope is that eventually the Ghanaian government will realize how important it is to put more measures into place to end child slavery, and will find more resources to enforce their laws against child slavery. Until then, Orphans’ Heroes will continue with preventative measures, while supporting current efforts by the government and other private Non Governmental Organizations. We will devote ourselves to healing some of these broken and hopeless children who have been treated as little more than a cheap commodity.

What We Do

Orphans' Heroes is a 501(c)(3) organization. Contributions to Orphans' Heroes are tax deductible to the extent allowable by law.

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