Ghana on Oprah

Check out the full show:
http://www.oprah.com/tows/slide/200702/20070209/slide_20070209_284_101.jhtml

Ghanaians the world over are devasted, why? Because the woman they've always wanted to visit their country, did have a special on the country....but it was about child slavery. Now this is one of many many white elephants that exist in the land of Ghana and Ghanaians are upset that of all the things in the country to focus on, Ms Oprah chose to talk about the long hours these babies (ok kids) spend on boats (mind you, most of them can't swim) doing various jobs including scooping out water from the boats to prevent capsizing and sinking. According to the report, most of these children were "given" to the fishermen by their parents, because of various reasons. A lot of these parents have no idea under what kind of conditions their children live, but they understand that their children might have more than they can themselves provide.

Child slavery takes many forms. Before the days of colonization, child slavery was practiced when parents gave up their children to debtors. The white men from the ships were at first rather disgusted by the practice by these black people. But somehow they realized that the disgusting part was the children, but trading the black people was quite alright. Then started the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Since the abolishing of the "official" slave trade, child slavery has continued to thrive. Folks realized that children make great sex slaves; they don't talk much (well not to authorities) and they do pretty much anything with the right pressure and fear. So that battle continues; some children are sold to be sex slaves, others are sold to work in boats or to sell pure water in the early mornings (of course they're not allowed to have any water themselves).

So what amends can be made about the situation. It's important to understand that a lot of poor families see children as assets. The children can work for them and at least bring some money home. In order to mend the situation, the families have to be provided with alternatives and educated about the importance of education for their chidren. Now, Oprah's crew worked with an organization in Ghana and helped take some of the child slaves back to their parents along with money and a chance for education.

Public health workers will be confronted by such situations. I can't provide a suggestion about how we deal with this. I simply understand that when I go home, I won't be one of those educated women that bring girls from the village to be their housemaid, with barely any pay and certainly no freedom.