Children Abandon School ? To Fend For Themeselves

Nearly 85% of children of school going age in Obomofodensua, a settler farming community near Nankesi in the Suhum Kraboa Coaltar District in the Eastern Region, have abandoned school to work and feed for themselves. They are working because they have either lost one or both parents through mysterious deaths that have occurred in the area in recent times.

The children over 150 are compelled to undertake menial jobs as carrying cocoa beans, fetching water, weeding farms, petty trading and crack of stones for a fee or food. Its effect on education is that schools are recording very low enrolment in the area.

A coalition of international labour experts made up of lLO, IPEC and child labour experts made the observation at a project launched to rescue children from their predicament in the area.

At the launch several children receiving help from West African commercial agricultural programme (WACAP) were made to narrate their own stories to the gathering.

Frans Roselaers, leader of the team, commended the chief of the village, Nana Ayera Kwah II and his elders, for allowing the group to monitor child labour activities in the area.

The ILP/IPEC/WACAP are jointly initiating programmes in the area to ensure better life for children in the area and to reduce poverty.