The Menace of Child Trafficking in Ghana

A Presentation By Joyce Steiner

At The Women Leadership Centre Alfred University New York

Justin Head; Staff Writer

ALFRED - Atrocities that challenge the imagination.

That's what Joyce Steiner, program manager of the Christian Council of Ghana (a fellowship of various churches), brought to Alfred University on Thursday July 1, 2010.

Steiner spoke about her work on a recent documentary, "Fight Against Child Trafficking." Steiner, a native of Ghana, has spent several years fighting for equal rights for children and women in Ghana.

The AU Women's Leadership Center, along with the Alfred-Hornell branch of the American Association of University Women, sponsored the event. About 30 people were in attendance.

As a motivated activist, Steiner has personally helped her organization save 182 boys and 40 girls from the sordid life of slave labor and prostitution. "Working from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m., being exploited at no cost. A child sold for $40 because the mother is poor and the family is irresponsible," said Steiner. As she explored her hands-on research and showed a 23-minute film, audience members couldn't help but wince at footage of children being beaten, the deformities they acquired from no medical care and the conditions they were forced to live and work in.

Steiner explained there are no foster homes in her country, making it hard to relocate children, and the victims are often psychologically scarred and bitter after being saved. She said although the government has compulsory schooling and anti-child labor laws, it does not enforce them and turns a shoulder to the death of hundreds of these children a year.

Much of her lecture focused on the young boys forced to fish for long days without food or water and without any supplies or safety precautions. A large a majority of the boys the CCG has rescued are missing more than one finger from getting their hands tangled in fishing nets, and some had lost body parts, eyes and had other permanent handicaps.

She said the traffickers smuggle more boys than girls in the coastal areas. "The girls they do traffic are treated as sex objects," and so they scarcely tell their stories. They suffer quietly.

Steiner said many children face 12 to 15 years of slavery before being rescued or assuming the role of their masters. The problem is so complex, she explained, in some cases the IOM has resorted to buying the fishermen out-board fishing boat motors to decrease the need for manpower. "What happens to the traffickers?" asked Kathy Woughter, AU's vice president for student affairs. "Ghana has ratified all the conventions and passed all the laws, but enforcement is a problem," said Steiner. "She mentioned that effective education and sensitization should be done with the various law enforcement agencies”." The traffickers are mostly given a warning and she only mentioned a few cases of prosecution of which she is aware. But there is hope, she said. Joyce Steiner has been able to work with relevant stakeholders who have joined in the fight against trafficking.

JUSTIN HEAD Joyce Steiner, manager of the Christian Council of Ghana, speaks Thursday at Alfred University Thursday.