Rescue 100 Children from Child Labour in Ghana

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