Children in Coastal Ghana being sold for GH¢50 out of poverty - Research reveals

A research conducted by a socio-environmental research and advocacy, Friends of the Nation (FON), a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) based in Adiembre in Sekondi-Takoradi has found out that most single parents living around coastal and deprived communities in Ghana sell out their children to fishermen, fisher folks and other people as low as GH¢50.

In a media and stakeholder engagement in Cape Coast funded by USAID to combat the Child Labour and Trafficking (CLaT), in the country, the Advocacy Officer of Anti CLaT, Mr Kwesi Johnson expressed sadness that even trained wild dogs sell at GH¢900 to GH¢5,000 compared to the price tag on human beings.

He wondered how human beings could be so callous and sell their own children for that low admonishing the parents not to think of the poverty situation they are living in and be engaging in such criminal acts.

Mr Johnson urged the parents especially single parents to work hard to move out of their poverty line rather than be selling their children or giving them off cheaply.

He expressed worry that Child Labour and Trafficking is getting serious in Ghana explaining that it is due to that Friends of the Nation are embarking on sensitization programmes to assist the government agencies to spread the message of the risks involved Child Labour and Trafficking.

Mr Johnson disclosed that the Central Region is one of the areas where teenage pregnancy is prevalent due to poverty.

He was disappointed about the growing phenomenon where some teenage girls chase grown men old enough to be their fathers and trade their bodies in return for GH¢1 because of poverty.

According to him, coastal areas in the Central Region continue to experience increasing poverty resulting in families willing to let go of their children and allow them to be taken to other places to engage in child labour commonly referred to as ‘Yenji’.

The Central Regional Police Public Relations and Head of Anti-Human Trafficking Officer, ASP Irene Oppong said her outfit recently rescued 35 children who were on their way to ‘Yenji’

She pegged their ages as from between four and seventeen, revealing that the only one person among 35 was 19 years.