Rescue 100 Children from Child Labour in Ghana

Sponsorship update

Even though CHF is not able to assist every child or family, the success stories of our current sponsored children keep motivating us to working relentlessly on this child labour and trafficking challenge in the fishing communities of the Awutu Senya Districts, Ghana. One of such success stories is one from EMMANUEL (NB: Names of beneficiaries has been changed to protect their privacy)

Emmanuel’s Story.

Emmanuel is a 12 year old boy from Senya who dreams of becoming a doctor in future. He’s been at the fishing shore helping his dad for as long as he can remember. He comes to the shore twice a week to fix the net, and is only paid GHC1( USD 0.43)   He attends school occasionally but hasn’t been able to focus on his education. He wishes to go to school full time, but his father wants him to spend time contributing to the family’s income since his income is not enough to pay his school fees. His mother sells the fish and earn very little since they do not have any fish processing facilities to enable them preserve their fishes; hence they have to sell it cheaply or it goes rotten. He has 4 siblings, and three of which work on the shores as well. Both of his parents are uneducated, and fishing is their only source of income. Emmanuel’s only opportunity to avoid the same fate lies in his ability to return to school full time and receive an education.

Cheerful Hearts Foundation choose to sponsor Emmanuel in September 2012 after witnessing how badly he wanted to go back to school, coupled with how severely the fishermen exploited him. We placed him in our partner school D/A Primary and have been monitoring his progress. His teachers report he is a very good pupil, showing outstanding participation in class. In his most recent report he has received very good grades in Natural Science and Religious and Moral education.

Thank you for supporting Emmanuel and his desire for an Education.

Update on recently rescued kids

Thanks to your donations, Cheerful Hearts Foundation was able to sponsor 10 more children from senya (the worst hit community with child labour and trafficking) and one girl at Fetteh for the school year. Our strongest desire is to provide as many support as possible for all rescued trafficked and child labourers.

Joseph’s Story:

Joseph is a 13 years old boy who was trafficked to Yeji when he was 5 years old. Yeji is 450km away from his home town Senya Beraku and he has to work there for four years. He came back to Senya when he was 9 years old and then had the chance to go to school for two years. Unfortunately, his parents now cannot pay the school fees anymore so Joseph works at the shore with a fisherman.  He mends fishing nets five days per week from 7am until 2pm in the afternoon. Joseph, who finds the work tiresome and sometimes gets injure, earns GHC1 (USD 0.43) per day, sometimes he is paid in kind (pieces of fish). His mother Abena is a fish monger (fish trader) and his father Bro Quaye a fisherman. Joseph doesn’t live with them but with his grandmother who also provides him three meals per day. Joseph wishes to have the opportunity of going back to school to become a teacher.

Cheerful Hearts Foundation chose to sponsor Joseph in September 2013 after witnessing how badly he wanted to go back to school. We placed him in our partner school Day star International and has been monitoring his progress. His teachers reports he is very respectful and participates very well in class. He is a hard worker as displayed in the two distinctions he attained in English Language and Creative Arts.

Thank you for supporting Joseph and his desire for an education.

Alimatu’s Story:

Alimatu works in a chop bar (local restaurant) with her sister. What she does mainly is cooking, fetching water and washing bowls. She works everyday in the week from 5am to 11pm.  She had no choice but to work at the chop bar for food and money to support herself. She said through an interview that, she finds her work tiring and that she dislike it because it does not allow her to go to school.  Her father is a farmer and her mother unfortunately is disabled and cannot work. She is currently living with her grandmother who is in her late seventy’s. She is provided food by her grandmother.  She is currently in class 6 in school, which is the class she attended school until her father couldn’t support her anymore. After the entire struggle, Alimatuturned out to be a very brilliant student, according to reports from her teachers. Hence she needs support to continue with her education to enable her achieve her future desire in becoming a teacher.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Cheerful Hearts Foundation chose to sponsor Alimatu after witnessing how eager she wanted to go back to school. We placed her in one of our partner school Fetteh D/A Primary, and have been monitoring her progress. Her teachers report that in her recent progress report that she shows very positive attitude towards school. Alimatu performs well which is stated by her good marks. She shows interest in all subjects.

Thank you for supporting Alimatu and her desire for an education.

                    CHILD RIGHTS EDUCATIONAL TALK

After a very busy summer prior to the beginning of the school year, most of our activities we reported on in our earlier edition paid off with rescued kids improving upon their grades after an intense summer vacation school. Parents also made sure their kids stayed in school which is proving how parent’s are gradually accepting the importance of education through our parent’s meetings and also the sensitization education being carried out in the schools in the fishing villages to educate the children about the importance of education. The more the children is schools get to know their rights, the more people get out of the shore and hence an increased enrolment in schools within the community.

Though we have been able sponsor additional 10 children this quarter through your generous support, there are still a considerable number of vulnerable children who need our support to achieve their educational and future aspirations. Cheerful Hearts Foundation is appealing to all generous donors can support the education of a child or can contribute any amount to support this project. Any little amount makes a positive difference in a vulnerable child’s life and it’s highly appreciated. Cheerful Hearts Foundation team promise all donors that we will make sure every single dollar is used to support these children and their communities in an effective and efficient manner.

We sincerely thank you all for your wonderful and generous support to the less privileged children, their communities and the organization. We ask for more blessings in your life and in everything that you do this Year 2014!

Many thanks!

Cheerful Hearts Foundation Team

Links:

• our official Facebook page
• Official website
• Youtube page

Sponsorship update

Having the goal of the project as rescuing one hundred children, CHF after months of child labour and trafficking interviews across Nyanyano, Fetteh and Senya has rescued ten (10) new children from Senya (the worst hit community and also the community with a widespread problem of child trafficking) making a total of 61 sponsored children. Our strongest desire is to provide as many support as possible for all rescued trafficked and child laborer.  Even though CHF is not able to assist every child or family, the success stories of our current sponsored children keep motivating us in working relentlessly on this child labour and trafficking epidemic. One of such success stories is one from Obed Ndzibah. Obed is a eleven years old boy from Fetteh, born to parents who are both uneducated, mother a petty trader and father a fisher man. His parent’s could not afford to pay for obed’s school fees let alone provide his school supplies for learning. Since Obed was unable to attend school, he worked at the shore mending nets and sorting fish where he earns 1.5USD per day. During an interview at the fishing shore with Obed, his dream is to become a Banker. CHF choose to sponsor Obed because of his strong desire to go to school to become the bank officer he aspires to be in future.

After witnessing his desire to return to school, we placed him in our partner school, D/A Primary and Obed has excellently impressed CHF. He just passed on from grade four to grade five. He placed fourth in class, it is imperative to let money prevent Obed from reaching his dream of becoming a bank Officer. His report for the term makes us all proud of his accomplishments. It is filled with remarks as “Respectful and Humble”…Has a positive towards school… Keep it up”. Thank you for supporting Obed and his desire for an education.

Justina Bonney

When we met Justina, she was still in school but about a week away from being trafficked to Yeji to work for a man she had never met. She desperately wanted to continue going to school and was a good student but unfortunately, her mother’s small roadside shop simply did not bring in enough money to provide for Justina and her siblings’ education or even their food and basic needs. Once children are trafficked away from their families, it is near impossible to get them back and they are often put in great danger and certainly forever jaded by the experience. Justina’s circumstance was an emergency situation and therefore CHF was happy to stop her from being trafficked.  

Project update

Summer was the busiest and exciting time for the child labour and trafficking project. Ten new volunteers arrived from universities in Ghana, US and UK to assist with the child labour and trafficking project. The project ever changing and adapting – depending on the circumstances, the skill sets of volunteers, the needs and issues that arise. CHF provided summer vacation school to help improve the reading and learning abilities of our sponsored children to help them catch up with subjects they couldn’t perform well in their end of term exams. 

Some of the rescued children at Gomoa Nyanyano (about 3 children) were not attending school regularly in the recent past school term (July 2013). Due to this, the Cheerful Hearts Project Manager with a volunteer from Germany (Eve Fiedler) organised a community meeting in August with parents of sponsored kids to further enlighten them on the long term benefits of education for their children and how we can collaboratively help achieve this vision for the children.

We also had the opportunity to invited to Parent-Teacher Association meetings that the Senya community to share our experiences on how parents can encourage their wards to learn both at home and in school as well as collaborating with the organization to provide adequate support for their children’s education and future.

Global Giving UK Visits Cheerful Hearts Foundation

In the month of September 2013, staffs from GlobalGiving UK, Helen Denyer visited the organization to access and evaluate how Funds received from Global Giving has been used to support the Child labor and trafficking project. Helen spent a week with CHF, visiting all the communities we work, interviewed both direct and indirect beneficiaries to identify the impact of the project on individuals, the entire community, challenges and strengths.

Helens visit was timely as it was a beginning of a new school term (first term) for all schools in the various communities. She had the opportunity to meet all the sponsored children, interviewed them, their teachers and parents and she was very much impressed about our work and how funds received from donors has helped changed many lives. Helen also went with the project manager to present all the books purchased by Cheerful Hearts that are usually given to all our sponsored kids the beginning of every term in their various schools. In general, the past quarter has been very successful and all the sponsored children are happily in school. Though we have not been able to reach our target of 100 children since we haven’t reached our funding goal, we hope that more generous donors including you would keep supporting this project. Cheerful Hearts Foundation team promise all donors that we will make sure every single dollar is used to support these children and their communities in an effective and efficient manner. To receive more information on Global Giving’s visit field report, you may reach Helen Denyer by email at helen.denyer@arcor.de

Cheerful Hearts Foundation is working on a video report on Global Giving’s field interviews in this past quarter and would share details in our next project report.

We sincerely thank you all for your wonderful and generous support to the less privileged children, their communities and the organization. We ask for more blessings in your life and in everything that you do!

Many thanks!

Cheerful Hearts Foundation Team

Links:

• Facebook page of Cheerful Hearts Foundation