Child Slavery in Ghana

[SummerChild]

I am watching Oprah and she is doing a story on child slavery in Ghana. The children are sold *by their parents* to go work on fishing boats in sometimes freezing water with only one meal a day. The have to go out on these fishing boats and pull nets. Many drown. Their bodies are overdeveloped due to the intense labors. Some of the children are as young as 4. The parents don't often know of the true conditions that their children will endure.
The story was apparently featured on the cover of the New York Times October 29, 2006.

The children can be rescued for apparently $300 per child.

I am completely pissed off and I hope that they give an address where ohters can contact for help. These are babies!!

Did anyone else see this?

I am just so mad. These are babies. They are just babies!

ETA: To help, contact the IOM organization.
The whole process, which is 2.5 years (involves helping parents to earn living, helping the fisherman learn to get fish w/out the children through new tools, etc.) - whole process costs $4300. They estimate there are kids in the high hundreds to low thousands. The kids are taken back to their families afterwards. Kind of unclear about the $4300 b/c the woman on Oprah said she did it for $320 per child.
Anyway, more info at www.oprah.com apparently.

SC

[RedefinedDiva]

If it were only $300, I'd try to spare a portion of my financial aid. It's SOOOOO hard to do all the things that I want to do on a NON-existent salary! I can't wait until I have a steady paycheck again.

This is so sad. We never realize just how privileged we are in the U.S.

Originally Posted by SummerChild

I am watching Oprah and she is doing a story on child slavery in Ghana. The children are sold *by their parents* to go work on fishing boats in sometimes freezing water with only one meal a day. The have to go out on these fishing boats and pull nets. Many drown. Their bodies are overdeveloped due to the intense labors. Some of the children are as young as 4. The parents don't often know of the true conditions that their children will endure.
The story was apparently featured on the cover of the New York Times October 29, 2006.

The children can be rescued for apparently $300 per child.

I am completely pissed off and I hope that they give an address where ohters can contact for help. These are babies!!

Did anyone else see this?

I am just so mad. These are babies. They are just babies!

ETA: To help, contact the IOM organization.
The whole process, which is 2.5 years (involves helping parents to earn living, helping the fisherman learn to get fish w/out the children through new tools, etc.) - whole process costs $4300. They estimate there are kids in the high hundreds to low thousands. The kids are taken back to their families afterwards. Kind of unclear about the $4300 b/c the woman on Oprah said she did it for $320 per child.
Anyway, more info at www.oprah.com apparently.

SC

Yes, I saw it. It was very sad watching those little boys working as slaves. They only eat one meal a day, and have to work in extreme conditions. It broke my heart even more when they rescued those little babies, but two of them had to remain as slaves. So sad