Off to Ghana

We have so much to tell you about our evening with the kids and their parents in Dar. Their movies are the best we've ever had the pleasure to watch (we'll post in the next few days). We'll do that tomorrow from Ghana. For now, I've asked our friend Lori Dillon to tell you more about what we're doing in Accra next week. More tomorrow...

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From Lori:

One out of four children in Ghana is sold into child labor. The most dangerous job they can do is work on fishing boats. These children, some as young as four years old, work 14 hour days, seven days a week and receive one meal a day (which is often withheld as punishment). Most of these children don't know how to swim or they become tangled in the fishing nets, so many have drowned. The International Office for Migration's Ghana Fishing Children Project rescues, rehabilitates and reunites these trafficked children with their families. Since it's inception in 2001, the Project has rescued over 600 children. After a child is rescued, Eric and his team work to find their parents. In the meantime, the children stay at the Rehabilitation Center in Accra (capital) where they receive counseling and medical care. They're enrolled in school where they learn English, which is the official language in Ghana. After a few months, the children are returned to their parents in a large reunification ceremony. We have been working closely with Eric Peasah, Counter Trafficking Field Manager, to support the rescued children and his efforts to save more of the hundreds of trafficked children. We started a pen pal program where children in our local Lake Forest community write to the rescued children, offering friendship and support. Eric visited us this summer and met with some pen pals and local school administrators who were excited to get involved. We also met Lisa Ling, who introduced us to Erik and Andy. As Erik would say, it was a fortunate stroke of serendipity. Erik talked about his and Andy's work through the Pearson Foundation, their upcoming trip to Africa, and how he wanted to partner up with us on all their African initiatives. Erik explained how they were going to work with the rescued children, using video phones donated by Nokia, to create Public Service Announcements about their rehabilitation and how their lives have improved since being rescued. We have started child trafficking awareness initiatives at the Deerpath Middle School (DPM) and Lake Forest High School where Claire is a sophomore. She's working on a high school fund raiser for the January rescue mission so more children can be saved. The sixth graders at DPM learn about Africa in Social Studies so this fit perfectly with their curriculum and the teachers strongly support the program. On the 18th, we're going to have two live video conferences with the rescued kids in Ghana and both schools. Because of Erik and Andy's incredible work through the Pearson Foundation, our students have the opportunity to communicate and interact with children in Africa. The students are so excited for next week!

Lori