Ghanaian Child

[Kandy Swartzel]

LinkedInand 3rd parties use essential and non-essential cookies to provide, secure, analyze and improve our Services, and to show you relevant ads (including professional and job ads) on and off LinkedIn. Learn more in our Cookie Policy.

Look, the curriculum is well designed and it will go a long way to help shape the Ghanaian child if it is well implemented. This curriculum will fundamentally address the system of merely passing examinations to building character, nurturing values, and raising literate, confident, and engaged citizens who can think critically.

The dream is that, a Ghanaian child should be; Creative, Informative, Critical thinker, Problem solver, Team leader/player, Good communication, Independent, Patriotic, Good moral values, Digitally literate and a global citizen.

This curriculum is supposed to be rolled out today, 10th September 2019 but I am saddened by the challenges that is already bedeviling the curriculum. Look, the government has not shown any serious commitment towards the implementation of the curriculum. From an interaction with the implementors (teachers and GES officials), and other stakeholders, the following challenges were identified;

May 6, 2015. As a member of the Kassena-Nankani ethnic group in Ghana, I grew up seeing my cousins and other girls suffer the pain of female genital mutilation (FGM) and forced marriage too often and usually against their will. Although they detested these acts, not submitting to them would have meant being stigmatized and living with the fear of remaining unmarried.

I vividly recall witnessing the abduction of my older cousin. We were at the market when she was grabbed by a group of young men who wanted to force her into marriage. In her attempt to free herself, she was hurt so badly that she died a few days later. The only reason why I escaped this harm was because my father never supported these acts.

Child marriage is a common harmful traditional practice (HTP) in my country. Harmful traditional practices such as FGM and child marriage cause a disproportionate amount of violence against girls and perpetuate traditional notions about female inferiority. I know this not only because the research says so, but because of my own experience as a Ghanaian woman and my work as a child protection officer with UNICEF.

The most widely practiced HTPs in Ghana are child marriage, marriage by abduction, FGM, and ritual servitude (trokosi).[1] Marriage by abduction, wherein girls are pressed to marry men who have carried them off by force, is still largely practiced in communities within the Upper East and Upper West Regions, while trokosi, a custom that involves the ritual servitude of girls, is practiced in some southeastern communities of the Volta Region. [2] As recently as 2013, there were between 4,000 and 6,000 women and children under bondage as trokosis in Ghana.[3] And despite strong legislation against FGM, the national average remains at about 4 percent, with prevalence as high as 16 percent in the Upper West region.[4]

Indeed, child marriage has tremendous implications for the development of girls and for societies. Its effects are multidimensional, driving girls into a cycle of poverty, poor health, illiteracy and powerlessness. Child marriage undermines nearly every Millennium Development Goal; it is an obstacle to reducing poverty, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality, improving maternal and child health, and reducing HIV and AIDS. In short, child marriage is an infringement on the right of the girls to their dignity and freedom.

The United Nations Population Fund estimates that 407,000 girls born in Ghana between 2005 and 2010 will be married before age 18 by 2030 unless urgent action is taken.[6] Following intensive campaigns and work by government and non-governmental organizations, Ghana has seen some progress, particularly in the legal area, where there is a framework to protect women and girls against these practices. Nevertheless, we are a long way from zero tolerance. To get there we need to apply a multipronged approach that ensures the active engagement of all relevant stakeholders, including traditional and religious leaders.

The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection has an Anti-Child Marriage Unit tasked with combating child marriage and other HTPs. This is a step in the right direction. With support from UNICEF and other donor agencies, including the Dutch Government, the ministry will establish a national strategic framework while coordinating mechanisms for eliminating child marriage and increasing preventive action by traditional leaders, religious bodies, and communities.

The program will also seek to increase public response to taking action against child marriage through communication for social change. An integrated approach involving traditional and religious leaders in tandem with the media is a key component that should help pave the way for tackling other harmful practices.

I believe that people will change their behavior when they understand the effects and indignity of harmful practices and when they realize that it is possible to give up harmful practices without giving up meaningful aspects of their culture. Culture is, after all, not static but always adapting and reforming.[7]

Many Ghanaian children are trafficked from their home villages to work in the fishing industry. Living in tough conditions and working long hours every day, they are exploited by fishermen desperate to feed their families and eke out a living along the banks of Lake Volta.

Created by the construction of the Akosombo dam in the early 1960s, Lake Volta is one of the world's largest artificial lakes. A number of fishermen who have depended on the bounties of the lake for many years report that fish stocks are decreasing, making it difficult to survive on fishing alone. Other work is scarce in a country where unemployment is widespread and approximately 40 per cent of the population live below the poverty line.

The depletion of stocks is one of the key reasons why children are needed as workers in the fishing industry. Children represent cheap labour, and their small, nimble fingers are useful in releasing the fish from the ever smaller nets.

"The Government should ban the use of nets with tiny holes," says Jack Dawson, Executive Director of APPLE (Association of People for Practical Life Education), a local NGO that works in several fishing villages. "Doing so would allow fish stocks to improve and discourage the use of kids because there would be no need for such small hands."

Another task that trafficked children frequently perform is diving to disentangle the fish nets from the numerous tree stumps that are scattered throughout the lake. As nets are often dragged along the bottom of the lake, they tend to get stuck. Diving is a dangerous job that can have dire consequences for the children, from catching water-based diseases such as bilharzia and guinea worm to death from drowning.

On a recent mission to Ghana, UNODC Goodwill Ambassador on Human Trafficking Julia Ormond visited a number of villages. Accompanied by a local team, Ormond spoke to child traffickers, trafficking victims and their parents, and people working to combat this crime. In one fishing village, Ormond observed several boats and their crews. Spotting the young victims of trafficking was relatively easy-they were less playful and more reserved than children still living with their parents.

"There was this young boy who came off the lake," she says. "He simply froze when he saw us! Carrying his paddles, his jeans falling off him-he wanted the attention of the camera, and gave a little smile, but it was so diffident, so broken."

The driving forces behind child trafficking extend beyond fish scarcity. Deep-rooted traditions can also help explain the prevalence of this crime. For example, it is common in Ghana for children to participate in apprentice work with a relative or family friend. Many children, and their parents, believe that going away to work is a route to a better life.

"Child trafficking is actually a distortion of the old cultural practice of placement with relatives or townspeople," says Joe Rispoli, Head of the Counter-Trafficking Department of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Ghana. "And many parents don't know the value of education; for them, it's more immediately valuable for their children to learn how to fish."

Child labour and even trafficking are deeply ingrained in the fishing industry in Ghana. Through conversations with child traffickers, it becomes clear that many of them simply do not realize that it is wrong for children to be away from their parents, missing school and performing hard physical work for long hours.

For example, Benjamin Tornye, a fisherman for 15 years, used to visit parents and ask if their children could help him with his work. As he said, "children are good fishers." He taught them how to handle a boat, swim and dive, and he believed he was doing the right thing.

However, a few years ago, an IOM intervention made Tornye and other traffickers realize that children should not be made to work like adults. "We have understood that it is wrong, and that kids should be with their parents and in school," Tornye says. Now, he is working as a community coordinator for APPLE, taking great pride in his work to stop child trafficking in Ghana.

The legal framework on trafficking in Ghana was strengthened in December 2005, when the Government passed a comprehensive anti-trafficking bill, with assistance from a variety of international organizations. And while Ghana has not ratified the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, there is optimism that it will do so in the near future.

"We are definitely going to ratify the UN Convention," says Marilyn Amponsah, Director of the International Children's Desk in the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs. "We have participated in ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) regional cooperation for many years, and we are now ready for the UN."

3a8082e126