Providing School Supplies to 100 Children in Ghana

My name is Akira Kondo, and I am the Ghana Project Manager for ACE.  Thank you all for your interest in ACE, and for making donations to support our efforts.

I think that it is very important for supporters to see the real-world effects that donations can have on the individuals and communities in our project areas. For that reason, I would like to introduce one of the children in Ghana who has benefitted directly from ACE's support over the years.

Godfred escaped the exploitation of child labour with the support of an ACE-sponsored program. Godfred started Elementary school when he was 7 years old, but his education was cut short when the death of his father made his going to school too much of a burden for his mother and two younger siblings. His mother could neither read nor write, and this made her prospects for supporting the family very bleak. 

At the age of nine, Godfried was adopted by his grandparents, but this did not improve his situation, as he was then forced to work on his grandfather’s cacao plantation. He still wanted to find a way to go back to school, so he took a second job working on a different cacao farm, to raise money to buy school supplies. Without intervention of some sort, Godfred's case seemed to have little hope. 

Fortunately, ACE started the SMILE-Ghana project in his village (Kwabena Akwa) in 2009. This project attempted to convince parents, and other adults in the village, of the importance of education, and to provide basic materials for children to learn. Due to these efforts, Godfred’s grandparents changed their minds and decided to allow Godfred to go to school, where he thrived, not only learning but being allowed the time to play, develop, and grow in ways that could not be imagined had he been left toiling away on a plantation.

He did so well that ACE invited Godfred to come to Japan in 2010, when he was still in his second year of Junior high school, as part of ACE’S 5-year anniversary project.  Godfred had a great experience, and was able to join a symposium, visit Japanese schools, and meet with Japanese politicians. All of these things would have been unthinkable just a few years before.

After returning to Ghana, Godfred studied very hard, and graduated from Junior high school with distinction in 2012, receiving a scholarship to study at a high school in a village near Kwabena Akwa. He graduated from high school in 2016, and now hopes to continue his education even further, pursuing his dream of becoming a medical officer or nurse, so that he can help the people in his village. 

When Godfred came to Japan, he told us how thankful he was that he could find a way to escape child labour, but he also reflected that there were many who have not been so lucky.

“If ACE didn’t come to my village, I think I would still be working and couldn’t go to school. But still, in other villages in Ghana, children are working on cacao plantations. I would like it if such children were also able to attend school, and not be forced to labor.”

When he was in Japan, Godfred introduced us to a poem that he had written. He wrote the poem in Twi (a Native language of Ghana) on the long bus ride to Acra (the capital of Ghana) where he went to get a passport. It was during his very first trip far from his village.  

Though he was still a junior high school student when he wrote it, we felt that this poem described his feelings very beautifully, and perhaps also gave voice to the plight of the 152 million children who still suffer from child labor worldwide.

Here is his poem: 

TINY HANDS THAT DO MONSTROUS JOBS

It all start as a help in the family cocoa farm
Compel by mother’s struggle to take care of the family
I show direction to the families cocoa farm
Tiny hands, that do monstrous jobs in the cocoa farms
Why should children suffer? 
Why should children work as labourers in the cocoa farm? 
Why should we do this everyday?
From dawn to dusk with these tiny hands 
We are tired of doing this everyday
Stop child labour in the cocoa farm

It’s like they don’t know how we feel inside 
Because our age sometimes doesn’t seem that real
But we feel more pain than they do sometimes express them
And for what they’re doing to us
They should be sued
We are sick of doing this everyday
The pain, the fatigue, and the struggle we go through everyday
But who listens, who cares, or is it because we are voiceless? 
Stop child labour

Our cuts and bruises and fatigue legs aren’t healing
As we do this day by day
It’s like they feel, but have no feelings at all
And aren’t bothered of what we have to say
We are tired of doing this everyday
Stop child labour

They get paid with the tears we shed and the pain we go through
We get no love, affection or a bed
We need some help, because tiny hands do monstrous jobs
So someone help us please
Help us get some dignity
Help us defend our rights, rights to be in school and have education
Have the courage to raise your voice
To help those in need
Those whose voices are so shattered
And whose lungs cannot breathe
We are sick of doing this everyday
Stop child labour 
They are tiny hands doing monstrous jobs

Thank you

By Godfred (Originally written in Twi)

We will continue our project in Ghana so that all children can have access to education, and they can have their dreams come true. 

Links:

• ACE Website