The Rescue List

“Trafficking in persons is a vile crime that feeds on inequalities, instability and conflict. Human traffickers profit from peoples’ hopes and despair. They prey on the vulnerable and rob them of their fundamental rights.”- Antonio Gutterres- United Nations Secretary-General. Evil exists in various forms. Human trafficking especially of a child is perhaps among the vilest of evils the human mind can conceive of and engage in. Recently, I came across a heart-wrenching documentary which is the focus of this blog. The Rescue List takes the viewer in the underworld of child labour and human trafficking. Set in Ghana, this true to life drama focuses on the battle to rescue children who have been sold into slavery by their parents. With just a few main characters, The Rescue List is able to bring to the viewer’s attention the murky and dark side of human trafficking. One character is Kwame who himself was trafficked to the lake masters when he was a child. Two other important characters in this documentary are Peter, who is determined to rescue his closest friend on the lake, and Edem, a boy suffering from guilt and depression because his best friend drowned while trying to save him. All of the children in the shelter are evidently trying to recover from abuse, so the rescue workers have their work cut out for them. In chronicling human trafficking on the African continent; the producers of The Rescue List; Alyssa Fedele, Zachary Fink and Davis Coombe are able to open our eyes, perhaps wider to the issues of child abuse and exploitation which are closely associated with human trafficking. This riveting drama underscores the desperation and inequalities faced by some parents as they make the decision to sell their children into slavery. The rescued boys are then rehabilitated at Challenging Heights, a Ghanaian safe house where they live for a year before they are reunited with their families. These trafficked boys are sold by desperate families and abused by fishing masters. It is estimated that some 20,000 children work in perilous conditions of child labour. Activists like Stephen Kwame Addo, uses a list, a rescue list to save as many children as possible and rehabilitate them before attempting to reunite them with their families. The Rescue List gives a harrowing account of human trafficking and child labour. The documentary evokes a number of emotions; from anger, to satisfaction, from sadness to joy. It is an emotionally challenging documentary as the producers capture the raw emotions of these survivors of human trafficking. The young men, well boys are forced to work on Lake Volta which is located in Ghana. Lake Volta is the largest man-made lake in the world; it is also notorious as a place for forced child labour. In some instances, boys from the same families are trafficked. The boys are abused and forced to work on Lake Volta. The trafficked boys are placed on these canoe-type fishing boats daily where they are expected to work; of course they are not compensated. This 81 minutes documentary addresses fear, courage, friendship, pain and hope. The end of the documentary however, left a number of unanswered questions regarding the rescued boys and what happens after they are reunited with their families. In one scene one of the boys uncomfortably hugs his mother when he is reunited with her; it is a haunting image that speaks volumes. The young boy declared he would rather stay with the village chief than with his own mother. There was real tension between himself and his mother. The boy’s decision hints at deepest psychological wounds which are impacting these rescued boys; the viewing audience is left with a lot of questions surrounding to what extent will the rescued boys re-integrate into their families who sold them into slavery. Another question for me was to what extent is justice applied to those parents who sold their children into slavery; as well as to the powerful fishing masters. Are these parents sent to prison; or are they given a slap on the wrist? The Rescue List should be on your bucket list of things to do. Challenging Heights Challenging Heights is a non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO) in Ghana that works to protect children’s rights and end child trafficking. It was founded in 2005 by James Kofi Annan a survivor of child trafficking and child labour. James was trafficked to Lake Volta when he was 6-years-old and he spent seven years there in modern slavery. He managed to escape, return to his home in Winneba and put himself through school. While working as a bank manager, James saved up money to start Challenging Heights with the intent to prevent more children from going through what he did and to rescue the children still working on Lake Volta. It started small, with Child Rights Clubs at schools in 2003. By 2005 he had saved up enough money to legally incorporate Challenging Heights as a non-governmental organization (NGO) and quit his job at the bank. The main focus of this non-governmental organization surrounds trafficked children on Lake Volta, where they are forced to work in the fishing industry. Challenging Heights work in the underserved coastal communities in Ghana, providing support to women and children in hard to reach areas that are at risk of child-trafficking. Human Trafficking The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) stated that in 2018 about 50,000 human trafficking victims were detected and reported by 148 countries. 50 per cent of detected victims were trafficked for sexual exploitation, 38 per cent were exploited for forced labour. Female victims continue to be the primary targets. Women make up 46% and girls 19% of all victims of trafficking. Globally, one in every three victims detected is a child. The share of children among detected trafficking victims has tripled, while the share of boys has increased five times over the past 15 years. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) states that economic hardship exacts a toll on millions of families worldwide and in some places; it comes at the price of a child’s safety. Roughly 160 million children were subjected to child labour at the beginning of 2020, with 9 million additional children at risk due to the impact of COVID-19. This accounts for nearly 1 in 10 children worldwide. Almost half of them are in hazardous work that directly endangers their health and moral development. Children may be driven into work for various reasons. Most often, child labour occurs when families face financial challenges or uncertainty whether due to poverty, sudden illness of a caregiver, or job loss of a primary wage earner. The consequences are staggering. Child labour can result in extreme bodily and mental harm, and even death. It can lead to slavery and sexual or economic exploitation. And in nearly every case, it cuts children off from schooling and health care, restricting their fundamental rights and threatening their futures. While many of us are not in a position to start a non-government organization, (NGO), this should not prevent us from using our various social media platforms to highlight the numerous social ills plaguing our world. There is much work to be done regarding advocacy and activism in order to usher in the changes we desire. In the words of one of the rescued boys, I held the pencil but didn’t know how to write. Wayne Campbell is an educator and social commentator with an interest in development policies as they affect culture and or gender issues. waykam@yahoo.com @WayneCamo #EndHumanTrafficking #TheRescueList #ChildLabour #Ghana #LakeVolta #ChallengingHeights ©