Just think if youwere taken from your family and trapped in a world of brutality and couldn’tescape. This is sadly what many boys encounter in Ghana today many slave ownersin Ghana enslave young children on fishing boats. The children are forced tountangle nets below the boats and have to fish long hours through day andnight.
Many of the children get caught in nets or in the rough water and drown.The three main points in my essay is the slavery, the organization IJM, and thesolution. One of my mainpoints in my project is the problem which is slavery. Slavery is the use oflies and violence to force another person to work for little or no pay. This iswhat is happening in Ghana to boys as young as four. Nearly 50,000 childrenwork in the country’s fishing industry, with tens of thousands on Lake Voltaduring peak season. Nearly 60 percent of these children working on Lake Voltahad most likely been sold into slavery. Boys who would have been inKindergarten were instead working long hard 12-plus hours a day and seven daysa week.
The boys start working at 3:00 AM to pull heavy nets they set the daybefore. The fish come out when the hot sun rises, and the boys take the morningcatch onto shore before noon. Thecondition they are in is brutal IJM saw children with “distended stomachs scarsfrom beating and physical abuse, skin diseases, hair falling out, and opensores and wounds”. Usually, their legsare covered in thick scars from motor accidents and dangerous fish, and theirhand calloused from pulling ropes and mending the nets. They also are regularlybeaten and made to do back-breaking labor, including carrying hundreds ofpounds of fish and swimming the depth of the lake to untangle nets. The slaveowners work them tirelessly without food. The violence they face is constant,but not uncommon.
According to Global Slavery Index, nearly 30 million peopleare trapped as slaves around the world that is one out of every four forcedlaborers are a child. Another main pointin my project is the organization that frees the boys out of slavery. The IJMwhich stands for Internal Justice Mission partners with those working in LocalJustice system to help victims of violence. They do this in four steps. Thefirst step is Rescue they first identify children and adult who are victims ofviolence or forced labor, rape, or sex trafficking. They then support local lawenforcement to go in and rescue the people and ensure that the victim is treatedwith dignity. The second step is Restore they create a treatment plan to helpmeet the survivor’s specific needs. They partner with local aftercare homes incase it is long term.
They make sure the survivor’s medical needs are met,provide trauma counseling, and support access to school. The third step isRestrain they ensure that the criminals cannot continue to harm the victims bysupporting the police in locating, arresting, and charging them with crimes.The final step is Represent is when they help the survivor prepare to share thetruth in court, and ensure that prosecutors have the resources they need for afair trial that brings the perpetrator to justice. My last main point is the solution in myproject. The solution is the boys are getting rescued from Lake Volta and beingfree of slavery. They are being taken into temporary shelters. The IJM socialworkers have helped the children settle into a long-term aftercare home wherethey will get ongoing care and have a chance to go to school. The goal is toeventually have the boys reunite with their families.
It will take time becauseof trauma-focused counseling. But already the signs of freedom are remarkable. In conclusion, to help get these boys getout of slavery, I will be raising money and I am going to donate it to IJMorganization. I hope this essay impacts you to take action and help raise awarenessand get these boys get out of slavery. The boys feel trapped in a world ofbrutality and feel like they can’t escape helping me help them to escape.
