A NON-GOVERNMENTAL organization named “SE EYE WOBA ANKA” (SEWA) which literary means “If He Were Your Child” has collaborated with Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) in Kumasi to help stop child trafficking in the country.
The organization met with the GPRTU management in Kumasi to discuss challenges facing these children and come up with workable solutions through a number of activities including an awareness campaign.
The Director of SEWA, Jones Owusu Yeboah said his outfit decided to partner GPRTU because “it is the drivers who pick up these children from the various villages to the cities.”
He said children are often engaged in tedious jobs at the stations, whilst the drivers look on helplessly. “That is why the organization is strongly collaborating with the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs, (MOWAC) and the police service (CID) Anti Trafficking Unit in fighting these abuses,” he noted.
He reminded the drivers about the Children’s Act 560 (1998) and the Human Trafficking Act 694 saying they stipulate among other things that anyone who engages children in hard labor without giving them an education will be acting contrary to the law and shall be sentenced to a minimum of 5 years imprisonment.
“We are starting this collaboration with drivers in the Ashanti region because the region is located in the centre of the country where vehicles carrying these children converge before continuing to their destination in the south,” he stated.
The GPRTU Regional chairman, Aaron Osei Boakye thanked the organization and said, “This collaboration will go a long way in contributing to our collective effort in fighting child trafficking and the creating of an environment which is conducive for the proper care, protection and development of Ghana’s children who are the future leaders.”
Mr. Owusu later presented the organization’s documentary about how Ghanaians are suffering and some t-shirts to the regional GPRTU chairman.
By Francis Yanchira-Dily Guide
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