Having seen another boy drown while diving into the lake to untangle a net caught on a tree underwater, Kow was very frightened that the same thing would happen to him as he worked. With a slight build, Kow looks far younger than the 14 years he says he will soon turn. He’s been at […]
In the week traversing Lake Volta in October 2015, the Challenging Heights Field Operations Team rescued 24 children from forced hazardous labour. This comes after a similar rescue in March with nearly as many children saved. With tips from villagers, the team found the children in fourteen different remote communities across the lake. Before the […]
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 […]
