This story is part of a series of child worker voices that Beyond Trafficking and Slavery gathered in the Lake Volta and Brong Ahafo regions of Ghana, areas frequently targeted for intervention by people seeking to end child labour. The children were asked to describe their work, why they do it, and how the country's decision-makers could help them. Their answers were translated out of the local Twi language and edited for clarity.
I am 13 years old. The people in power who want to stop children from working in bad jobs need to understand our situation before they take action. I say this because of my experience with the police and NGO people who wanted to stop me and other children from working on the lake.
Last year they came to take us from our parents by force. We were on the lake, and they came with guns and weapons. They screamed at our father and said he was a bad man because he should have taken us to school instead of bringing us fishing. They took us away in their speedboats. But before that, they made us take off our clothes and took pictures of us semi-naked with the canoe paddles. I don’t know why they did that, but it made me feel very bad.
