Over 150 GPRTU leaders empowered to fight human trafficking

Engage Now Africa, an international NGO committed to ending poverty in Africa has launched a campaign dubbed “Trafficking-free Road Campaign” to empower leaders of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) in the Central Region.

The 1-day sensitization forum saw over 150 beneficiaries who represented 103 branches of the GPRTU in the Central Region sensitized and empowered on the tricks of child trafficking and how to curb it.

The participants were also handed anti-slavery branded stickers, certificate of participation including 30 minutes video documentary on child trafficking.

They were also tasked to show the video to their members within the branches and also get them copies to show in their vehicles on daily basis.

Director of End Modern Slavery of Engage Now Africa, David Kofi Awusi remarked, “our goal is to record zero modern slavery or human trafficking on all our roads in Ghana”.

Speaking during the launch of the campaign at Oguaa Teachers Hall in Cape Coast on Wednesday, September 28, 2016, David Kofi Awusi said: “We believe the first step towards ending modern slavery is through sensitization and prevention hence the launch of our newest innovative campaign today”.

He further noted: “The greatest strength of this campaign is our strong collaboration with the GPRTU leaders and drivers so that the drivers willingly commit to showing the video documentary on their vehicles consistently and also report cases of trafficking at the police checkpoint for intervention”.

“This way, on daily basis, passengers and ordinary Ghanaians both in the cities and remote communities will be sensitized and empowered to know how to resist, identify and report cases of trafficking in its various forms”, David Kofi Awusi added.

The participants pledged support and willingness to get drivers within their respective branches to show the documentary to passengers on daily basis to enable the campaign run smoothly.

Modern slavery [or human trafficking] is rampant in Ghana growing at a fast alarming rate with over 190,000 people being victims.

About 49,000 of these victims, mostly children, are already engaged in the act on the Volta Lake alone. Out of this number, over 21,000 of them are forced into hazardous labour like diving into a deepest depth of a river to remove a trapped net including other dangerous works that put the lives of these children at risk.

Engage Now Africa is currently working in Ghana with the mission “to engage and strengthen individuals, families, and communities to end poverty by instilling hope and teaching principles of sustainability in: education, micro-credit, clean water, medical services, orphan support, and eradication of modern slavery”.