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| by Kweku Temeng, Skyy Power FM, |
May 15, 2006 |
Access to basic education has improved tremendously in Ghana with the introduction of free compulsory basic education. But as a journalist it really baffles me that some children are still roaming around on the streets of Ghana engaging themselves in all kinds of labour activities. I wonder: How many kids dream of being in the classroom? Or do they just prefer living on the street?
A group of children who have recently attracted my attention are a bunch of scrap metal boys operating at a huge garbage pit at Mpintin near Takoradi in Ghana’s Western Region. Finding out why these boys have defied privileges provided to them by the Ghanaian government brought shocking revelations to me.
But first, let me set the scene for you.
It’s 10:30 in the morning. A bad stench is choking me up. Dozens of vultures are hovering over stinking refuse strewn across a huge area. My colleague John Gaudi, a human rights journalist, has also joined me at the site. I want to see for myself just what the boys have to go through in order to get a day’s meal.
I’m struggling through heaps of refuse trying to make my way to where the garbage boys are working. Just then a huge truck backs up offloading garbage right in front of me. The boys don’t pay any attention to me as I approach them. They jump into the garbage pit eagerly looking for scraps of metal. Finding pieces of copper, aluminium and brass is what fetches them their daily bread.
The boys are between the ages of 5 and 15 years old. While their peers go to school, they toil in the garbage dump for up to 8 hours a day. The question that readily comes to mind is: where are their parents?
Ghana is a signatory to the 1998 UN convention on the Rights of the Child. But I’ve observed that strict regulations are not enforced at Mpintin landfill site to ensure the protection of vulnerable children. Section Six of the Children’s Act emphasizes the need to protect children from neglect, discrimination, violence, abuse and exposure to physical and moral hazards, as well as oppression. Moreover, Chapter Five of the Ghanaian Constitution stipulates that every child has the right to be protected from work that threatens their health, education, and development.
As I ponder over these policies of the government, another thundering diesel engine pulls up with more garbage to be dumped. The boys attack the fresh load of garbage using steel rods with hooks at the end to pick away at the trash. Few of the boys wear shoes; others wear just chalewate (slippers) as they scramble up onto the mound of garbage.
While the boys pick through the garbage, I ask them what circumstances have compelled them to be at the garbage site rather than being in school. And the answers I receive are similar. Digging through the garbage is the only way we can send money home to our families, they tell me. In their submissions the boys confess that there are real risks involved at working at the landfill site.
One of the boys wearing tattered cloths tells me, “We are exposed to so much danger. We get deep cuts from broken bottles and one can notice that we smell.”
Another boy says he would like to go to school but his parents are very poor.
“My friends and I have to depend on the scraps we sell. I have currently dropped out of school. But I really don’t want to be a drop-out. But I have no choice. I wish I could join other children in the classroom.”
The question I ask myself is, “Even though there is free compulsory basic universal education for all Ghanaian children, who is responsible for ensuring that all these children are in school?” With this in mind, I visited the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs in Takoradi in the Western Region. John Hackman is the Western Regional Coordinator of the National Commission on Children. He says these children will lose a great deal if they miss out on getting a proper education at school. He says it will be a “missed opportunity” which will doom the government’s efforts towards alleviating poverty.
The Government of Ghana has come out with various interventions to empower women and support families so that kids don’t end up on the street. Hackman says government is doing its best by offering low income earners capital through the Poverty Alleviation Fund. Poor parents can take advantage of the fund to help their children. But whatever the government is doing, the problem persists. Kids are still ending up on the street.
How can NGOs take up the challenge if the government’s efforts are not enough? I visited another organisation to enquire about the welfare of children. It's called the Mercy Foundation in Takoradi. The organisation has a programme that caters to the needs of street children. With a project called "Hope for Survival," the Mercy Foundation aims to offer a way for street children to get off of the streets. The foundation provides career counselling, vocational training and works with children to envision a different reality for themselves.
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Comments
Henry Ekwuruke | Jun 19th, 2006
Congrats to Ghana for taking great steps to making the polity better for the people. I believe very importantly that we have mouch to do in Africa but we need to start doing it now!
Jocelyn Sweet | Jun 28th, 2006
I think it's about providing alternative sources of income to the families of the boys, making sure the parents earn a living so the children don't have to do that for them.
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