“My son is young and definitely he can work with us at night and the following day go to school. In our family money has always been needed. I started fishing when I was 10 and nothing has ever happened to me”. Said Peter, captain of the boat BELIEVE, father of Kessah Amevor of 11-year-old and resident in Ada region (Ghana).
Five-thirty in the morning, Kessah’s mother waits for her son on the shore of Maranatha Beach. Kessah has been working all night. Next to him the metal basket to store the fish that she can buy today. Once the BELIEVE docking work is completed, the bidding of the fish begins on the beach. Kessah himself is filling his mother’s basket with the fish of the day (value of the basket= 2€). Immediately, mother and son collect their goods and go straight home. The School classes start at eight o’clock and the boy needs the school uniform. On the other hand, the mother starts a new day in the fish market.
UNICEF estimates that about 150 million children between the ages of 5 and 14, or almost 1 in 6 children in this age group, are victim of child labour. On the coast of Ghana, these numbers are visible: It’s estimated that 50,000 children work in fishing boats on Volta Lake.
