NEW DEVELOPMENTS

NEW ACTIVITIES

Research in Working Children.

REPORT ON RESEARCH CONDUCTED BY CAS ON "WORKING CHILDREN IN THE GREATER ACCRA REGION-ACCRA.

This research has been conducted in four industries:

1. Fishing industry at the beaches of the region.

2. Sand winning and stone crushing industry.

3. Farming.

4. Selling and porting of goods in the city.

1. Fishing industry.

This research was conducted during the months of February and March 2014, by six members of staff.

a) They conducted a mapping and introduction exercise by meeting the chiefs and government officials in the area.

b) Did research the beaches (mapping).

c) Interviewed children, parents, guardians, fisherman and traditional leaders.

Areas covered:

· Chorkor

· James town

· Chemuenaa

· Korle-Gonno

· Glefe

Aim of the research: The aim was to know more about the working children around the beaches.

NGOs working at the beaches are: UPCO (Glefe), Street Wise and Street Academy at James town.

Objectives of the research;

· To know the number of working children around the beaches in the above mentioned areas.

· The reasons why they are there.

· Arrangements made between the parents or guardian if there are any.

· Actual work that the children do to assist the fisher folks.

· Socio-economic situation in the beaches.

· Risk that confronts them.

Observation:

1. During the research we observed that most of the parents could not cater for their children because of financial problems. Some children also feel comfortable with their current situation not going to school and working or helping on the beaches. Some children are forced to work on the beaches in a form of inheritance because the family tradition should continue. We also realized that some of them have lost interest in schooling because they observe what their friends have been earning at the beach which clearly states that peer pressure is also a factor.

2. The children who help at the beach to sort the fish earn between two and five cedi a day. Those who work offshore, and accompany the fishermen in the boats earn between 20 and 50 cedi a day.

3. Majority of the children met on the beaches were indigenes with a few coming from the other part of the country. Further the children met there were either dropped out from school or are in school. Generally these fisher folks have large families which suggest why their children cannot be catered for in school. Further, apart from children who are working there are others who idle around either play, do their own fishing or gamble.

4. Glefe : our visit to Gbegbeyesie beach revealed alot about the children who work on the beach. The environment is not healthy for these children since the beach served as a place of convenience for the entire community. Further, some part also served as a refuse dump for the people around. Another observation made at this area was that there are a lot of children who come to the beaches to work for the fishermen, play around or swim in the sea. There are others too who come with their mothers to buy fish and these are between the ages of 2 to 13 years old and have to be in school. Further, irresponsibility on the part of the fathers has led to most of the children working in the beaches instead of being in school. Most fathers have two or more wives and a lot of children hence their inability to send them to school. There are no serious economic activities going on at the beach, it’s just some few hawkers and a few drinking bars in operation.

Chokor : the Chorkor beach has been divided into four namely: Chemuenaa, Lantey Maamli, Galilee and Mantsulu Mli. The environment at the beaches is very bad and poses a lot of health hazards to the people living there. Most of the beach has been used as refuse dump and public place of convenience where people defecate indiscriminately. The economic activities there is also very low and just like Glefe beach with some few food vendors.

The environment at James town beach is a bit better than the other beaches. Economic activities there is high, there is a market center and other food venders and a workshop for modeling the canoes. The office of the national fishermen association is also there. Another observation made is that there are some squatters there and according a woman they run brothels there where prostitution and smoking of wee goes on. During our visits we came across some teenage mothers among the squatters there.

CONCLUSION:

Majority of the children met on the beaches are indigenes and live with the parents. These children are not "street children" neither are they born on the street.

They are working on the beach to assist their parents.

Part Two:

RESEARCH WORK ON STONE QUARRY AND SAND WINNING IN GA WEST AND SOUTH MUNICIPALITIES

AREAS: (GA WEST) – Group A.

1. Obom - Sand winning

2. Medie - Sand winning

3. Ashaladja - Sand winning

4. Adjin Kotoku - sand winning

5. Amasaman - sand winning

GA SOUTH

1. New Bortianor -Stone quarry

2. Tetegu ( shop Rite) –stone quarry

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION

Geographically, Ga west lies in the Eastern corner of the Greater Accra region. The District capital is Amasaman. The area is also bounded on the North by the Eastern region, on the East by Ga East, the west by Ga central and Ga south municipalities. The above mentioned towns (ref GA WEST) are all located in the area where sand activities go on there.

The researches were conducted in April 2014.

CHILDREN IDENTIFIED

Many of the children met claimed to be in school. Some were helping their parents either before going to school or go to school in the afternoon. Several of the children were fulltime working.

A total of 46 boys were at Ga West municipal involved in sand winning. The ages are 15 to 18 years.

Role of these children

- Some use head pans to collect scooped sand to fill small trucks.

- Others run errands for the workers.

CHALLENGES

1. Some of the areas where sand winning takes place, will be sold to Estate Developers later.

2. Some people were not ready to speak to the team.

3. The localities were very remote and in some instances had to traded more than ten kilometers

4. In other areas we were not allow to take picture

GA SOUTH 7^TH – (STONE QUARRY)

At Ga south we identified

- New Bortianor

- Tetegu (ii) as areas where the research work could be carried out. We employed the same technique as pertains in Ga West but concentrated on our operations in the two areas mentioned above.

- Number of children met – 63 (Both boys and girls)

- A child (male) aged 17 claimed he is a senior high student but comes there occasionally to work as errand boy.

Group B.

Group B conducted the research in Pokuase Domiabra gravel pit, Katapor Pit and John Teye Yesumo Pit, Kwabenya, Dedeiman and Gbawe.

REVELATIONS

We realized that most of the children are coming from the Volta region, most of the children are in school, majority of the children are assisting either by both or by a single parent.

MODE OF OPERATION

The group also realized that the people who are engaged in the stone quarry normally uses dynamite to break the sedimentary rocks into sizeable sizes before it’s is cracked into the required sizes. They start their work early in the morning 7:30am and closes late afternoon say 5:30pm. Children who are in school and run shift either come in the morning when they are in the afternoon shift and vice versa.

OBSERVATION:

Places visited. DOME ABRA: It is a well organized stone and sand quarry with all the earth moving equipment at site. During our time of visit we counted 100 children, 20 of them girls all below the ages of 19years. Many of them come to support their parents either to help pay their school fees or for the upkeep of the family. Some of the children said they were attending school, others drop out and others completed JHS. Almost all of them at the time of visit were working without protection.

KATAPOR. This place is not as organize as Dome Abra however during our time of visit we counted 30 children 10 of them girls below the ages of 18years. They also come there to supports their parents pay schools fees and the upkeep of the family. At Katapor some of the children do not go to school some were also drop out. We also realized that most of the children refused to go to school because they make money at the quarry which is also a major concern of some of the parents.

JOHN TEYE DOWN

Another place visited was John Teye. We did not see many children, only 25 children were working there of which 6 were girls. Many of the children were there to sell items to the workers. They were also some parents with toddlers. Also at this place the children were working without protection. Land owners give the lands to them with the reason to level the lands for them. Some gives the land out for free but others too takes some amount of money. After the land is leveled they move to other places. Some of the children also come together in a group of about five to crack stones, gather it and sell it together and share the money. According to them they earn more in this way than working alone. Most of them complained that the truck owners don’t pay them in full when they come for the stones.

A district report on AmasamanGa -West.

District work exercise was focused on Areas, Landmarks, Meeting points, opinions leaders, potential partners in the field, kind of children and problems in the communities.

Areas covered were:

Amasaman Township, 1. Adjei Kotoku 2. Medie 3. Ayikai- Dobro 4. Achiaman 5. Kwashie kuma 6. Obom 7. Pokuase 8. Abiase

At Amasaman Township, there is ongoing construction work at the main station beside the district police head quarters. Due to this all the activities have moved across the road side. Most of the children met were truck pushers, and migrated from central region and Togo.

After working for a day they sleep at Adjei-Kotoku train station. We also met few of them who are indigenous loitering around and also involved in caring load and stone quarry business. Through our investigation and contact with authorities like Assembly Man, Station Master, District police officer and the chief of Amasaman, there were different kindof children in their community Such as

1 .Urban poor children

2 .School going children

3 .Typical street children

Urban poor children

MADINA ZONGO JUNCTION

Name of the area: Zongo Junction

Landmarks: La Nkwantana Madina Municipal, Main madina lorry station, Abokobi station,Madina main market, Madina police station, Unibank and Madina post office.

Meeting points: the main lorry park, the main madina market

Opinion leaders: market queens, GPRTU,PROTOA, THE POLICE

Potential partners in the street:

Kind of children: head porters, Truck pushers, children hawking around the lorry stations and the markets

Problems: one of the problems noticed was that most of the children around this location are head porters from the northern part of the country and getting to work with them is a bit difficult. They tend to associate themselves with persons coming from their hometown or speak their language. We also came across some truck pushers but they seem older than our target group but hope we might come across some of our target during the exercise.

PART THREE

Farming