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 16 years old. I come from a village on the Ghana-Ivory Coast border; my mother and brothers are still there. I work as a labourer in a brick and block factory in the city of Sunyani. I also work on construction sites digging foundations, mixing mortar, or any other job that might be available. I washed cars before I started working in construction. A friend told me that although construction work is harder it is better paid. I have been doing it for almost two years now and he was right.
I dropped out of school during Class 5. My parents did everything to make me stay in school. Sometimes my mother walked me to the school premises, but after she left I would run away. I just didn’t understand anything there. Every now and then I wonder what my life would have become if I had stayed. But I know several guys who went to good schools in Sunyani, Kumasi and even Accra. They are now working as constructions labourers too.
