Ghanaian Parents Paid $160 Not to Sell Their Children

The idea of forking over a wad of cash to parents as an incentive for them not to sell their children into slavery may seem like the epitome of cynicism. But in Ghana, local and international NGOs are teaming up with the government to do just that. And the program might just be curbing a huge child trafficking problem and helping Ghanaian children and parents alike live a life free of poverty and slavery.

In Ghana, hundreds of children are trafficked into the fishing industry, where they are forced to work long hours performing difficult and dangerous tasks for little or no pay. There, these children are exposed to deadly diseases, and they are often malnourished. Children trafficked into the fishing industry are frequently sold by their parents. In the last eight years alone, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has rescued over 600 kids sold into slavery in the fishing industry by family members and caretakers. Ghanaian children are also trafficked into commercial sex, domestic servitude, and the cocoa industry by family members.

Child trafficking in Ghana isn't an epidemic because Ghanaian parents love their children any less then parents in other countries. On the contrary -- most parents sell their kids or hand them over to traffickers out of desperation. Sometimes, traffickers will lie to parents, and tell them their child will go to school in another part of the country. Other times, traffickers will be honest about the work, but hide the abusive conditions and lack of pay. Occasionally, parents will be so desperate for money they will sell one child to feed others or cover some immediate medical expense. It is a terrible choice parents are driven to make by poverty, lack of education, and lack of other options.

But a new program in Ghana is aiming to change that by paying impoverished families $160 -- about 3 times the going rate for a child slave -- to keep their children at home and send them to school. Families who sign up are also eligible for micro-enterprise training workshops, which teach skills from tailoring to animal husbandry. The idea is that by boosting family income, both through skill building and the direct payments, families will be able to keep children at home and will be less vulnerable to traffickers offering money. Since the program's inception, IOM has seen the number of kids trafficked into the fishing industry dropping. The number of children who are trafficked multiple times (re-trafficked after being freed) is also lower. Though the concept of paying families in this way may seem a little unsavory, the program appears to being doing what it intended: reducing child trafficking and lifting families out of poverty.

But reducing the number of children vulnerable to slavery is only half the battle. As long as there is a market for child trafficking victims in the fishing industry, there will be traffickers looking to supply them -- by duping desperate parents, by lying, or by kidnapping. You can do you part to help the families of Ghana by knowing where the fish you eat comes from. When we reduce the demand for cheap fish, we reduce the incentive traffickers have to enslave children. And that's one program we can all get with.

Photo credit: DavidDennisPhotos