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 17 years old. I work on the lake. I am not from this village, but I have lived here for eight years.
My parents passed away when I was a child. I grew up with my grandmother, who was very frail. She had a problem with her heart. She needed expensive medical attention, and the little money my uncle occasionally sent us was never enough. Sometimes we didn’t even have food to eat. I was going to school then, and my uniform, shoes, and other things looked like rags. I was always hungry and had a hard time understanding what they were teaching, so I didn’t want to go anymore.
