The saying “birds of the same feather flock together” best describes the story of Sylvester Kotia and Kweku Odifo.
Each boy’s story sheds light on the issue of child labour in some fishing communities in Ghana.
Kwaku the youngest of three is viewed as the odd one in his family.
His mother reveals why:
“When we moved to this community, I sent him to a school. It was a girl’s school but I was not aware. And so, when it as time for physical education class, he said he was too shy to play with the kids and the teachers flogged him. He came home and said he won’t go to school again. And so, I took him back myself and went to apologize. He was told to pick something for the teachers and he refused. They flogged him again because of that; and in anger he picked up a stone and threw it to hit the teacher. Since then, the teachers refused to take him back into the school)
Unfortunately, Kwaku’s parents won’t send him back to school, denying him the right to education due to financial struggles.
For Kweku, fishing is a challenging task which overwhelms him.
“Fishing is a difficult job. When we go to see, I’m always tasked to fetch the water out of the boat. I start from 12am in the morning and continue throughout the day, until they cast the net. I also arrange the fish inside basins in the boat”.
In 1998, Ghana’s Parliament ratified The Children’s Act, which outlines the rights of children in Ghana. According to the Act, the minimum age for children to be involved in light work is 13 years, and the minimum age for hazardous work is 18.
Children at Sekondi landing beach are far below the minimum age for hazardous work. Can they escape this fate and reclaim their childhood?
Within the social welfare department here and the district and local assembly here, they are also helping. Through the chief fishermen, with such cases, we make the report to the police or to the social welfare, so they take it up. So, the best way the fisheries commission is also helping is, we are also engaging the mothers especially because they are mostly with the kids. So, we are educating them on some of the harmful effects that the kids may face. There have been instances where, they’ve been exposed to videos of kids which have been deformed because they were involved in extraneous work on the sea.