Sunday, October 17, 2010

NGO TO THE RESCUE OF TRAFFICKED CHILDREN (PAGE 42, OCT 18, 2010)

A NON-GOVERNMENTAL organisation (NGO), Community Development Concern (CDC), in partnership with Madamfo Ghana Foundation, has embarked on a programme to rescue trafficked children in Awate-Tornu and Wusuta-Kpebe in the Kpando District of the Volta Region.
The Executive Director of CDC, Mrs Joycelyn Akorfa Dotse-Ochlich, lamented that those children were asked by fishermen to dive to disentangle fishing nets that got stuck onto tree stumps in the Volta Lake, noting that sometimes some of the children got drowned.
According to her, because most of the children did not attend school, they were maltreated by their slave masters, adding that some of them were even used in fish processing and smoking.
Mrs Dotse-Ochlich said the rescued children had been placed in temporary homes while investigations were being carried out to trace their real parents.
She said the identified parents would be counselled, supported with basic economic empowerment and encouraged to take their children home.
She stated that the children had been enrolled in schools and that their school fees and needs were being paid for by Madamfo Ghana Foundation.
She said apart from the rescue activities, some fishermen had been trained by the Ministry of Fisheries in Ho to undertake controlled fish farming in the lake as an alternative source of livelihood.
Mrs Dotse-Ochlich added that 21 fish cages, each containing 5,000 fingerlings, were to be supplied to the fishermen in groups.
Three boreholes had also been constructed for the two communities.

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