COUNTRY / PROBLEM
The Republic of Ghana is a country in West Africa with a population of almost 30 million. Although Ghana has been an independent state since 1957, its inhabitants are not all free. Thousands of women, men, and children fall into the clutches of slavery.
The statistics are horrifying: according to the International Labour Organization (ILO), there are 40 million slaves around the world, and one in four of them is a child. At the same time, never in history have slaves been so cheap.
In Ghana, the price for a child slave is just a few dozen dollars. It is estimated that there may be up to 20 thousand enslaved children in the region of Lake Volta.
In the region of Lake Volta, children are most often used for work in the fishing industry. It happens that children only four years old are forced into slave labour, and slave owners make children work for a dozen or more hours a day, beat them for disobedience, and give them only one meal a day. Sometimes the children are also tortured. Some of the children die performing tasks beyond their strength.
In Ghana, despite the positive changes in legislation, the state system to combat modern slavery is still not effective. This is why non-governmental organisations such as PACODEP play such an important role.
ORGANISATION
George Achibra Senior could not sit idly by while the children suffered. When John – undernourished and beaten up by his ‘master’ – came to him for help, George decided that he had to do everything he could to help him. In 2003, he established the PACODEP (Partners in Community Development Programme) non-governmental organisation aimed at combating child slavery in Ghana. To date, the organisation has successfully freed more than 800 children, and John was the first of them.
PACODEP employees carry out rescue missions to free enslaved children on Lake Volta. Children who have been rescued are registered at the police, undergo basic examinations in hospital and their cases are reported to the court. PACODEP always observes the rule of law, and the organisation receives official court order allowing them to take care of the rescued children.
Rescued children find home in the Village of Life run by PACODEP. There, the organisation runs schools for its beneficiaries, which place high in the ranking of local schools. More than 100 rescued children now live in the Village of Life.
Currently, in the Village of Life PACODEP runs a pre-school, a primary school, and a junior high school. Work is in progress on the construction of a senior high school. There are also plans to create a medical clinic.
PROJECTS
Kulczyk Foundation is a strategic partner of PACODEP and supports its efforts to free child slaves. To date, Kulczyk Foundation has financed 20 rescue missions, and purchased a motorboat necessary for the rescue missions. The Foundation covers the annual cost of rehabilitation of 20 rescued children in the Village of Life.
Kulczyk Foundation donated funds for completing the first stage of construction of the Senior High School in the Village of Life.
Dominika Kulczyk’s support means more rescued child slaves and better care for those who have been successfully saved.
KF is PACODEP’s biggest donor of all time.
