As part of an annual tradition, students at Challenging Heights School come together to celebrate the end of the academic year and the Christmas holiday through music, dance, and cultural performances. Weeks in advance, younger pupils rehearse traditional Christmas songs such as “The Twelve Days of Christmas” and “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” while older […]
This fall, a bus full of children was stopped by police; the driver was questioned; all children were questioned, and they were turned BACK to their homes, away from the direction of slave labour. Challenging Heights’ Advocacy Team says it came just after our Child Protection training, where Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) leaders […]
Sometimes it’s been years since a mother or father has seen their child, who’d been sent to northern regions to work on Lake Volta. Sometimes the mother and father her/himself sent the child away, but other times it was other family members who take that responsibility. When children are rescued by Challenging Heights, they are […]
The best English speakers from five different schools pitted against each other for an intense recitation competition. The librarians at Hand in Hand for Literacy’s Challenging Heights Community Library hosted the event, offering prizes for winners, as well as a chance to compete again on a local radio show. Head librarian, Madam Safowaa explained to the […]
At the time of rescue, traffickers and families who are said to be misusing children and forcing them to work on Lake Volta are given a letter – a summons – that they must report to Challenging Heights’ office in Sankor, Winneba. There, they will be interviewed and decisions will be made as to what […]
Challenging Heights has just rescued another 24 children trapped in child trafficking in fishing on Lake Volta. This brings the total children rescued by the organization since January to 40. All these children, aged 6 to 16 years old, are supposed to be in school – but that is not the case. Instead they were enslaved in […]
Gasps and groans erupt from a crowd of hundreds gathered at the Methodist Church in Senya, which is nearly an hour drive from Winneba, on Ghana’s coast. Over a couple of hours, they watched a film showcasing the reality of child trafficking and forced labour on Lake Volta. Men, women and children of all ages […]
“All these little faces are smiling, reading, and enjoying books.” For about the first ten minutes of stepping into the Hand in Hand for Literacy Community Library at Challenging Heights School, the founder and president of Hand in Hand, Deb McNally, smiled as she explained how she could barely speak as she “had to soak it […]
The first day the field team was set to ship out in the Jeff Kashden Express in search of children trapped in hazardous slave labour on Lake Volta started bright and sunny, but quickly, the skies darkened and clouds opened. A massive storm rolled in to Yeji and the team’s launch, which should have begun […]
When children arrive at the Hovde House Rehabilitation Shelter, they come from a life of slave labour on Lake Volta. Sometimes, they endured violent abuse and verbal assault. This means many of them suffer from some level of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). People suffering from post-traumatic distress disorder report that cannabis reduces the severity […]
