Reality Tour!!!

The Reality Tour is a trip planned by City of Refuge outreach, for NYU students to see what child trafficking in Ghana looks like, how it can be stopped, and above all else to spread awareness. Because I work with City of Refuge, I have been talking with John and Stacy about the trip for months (they’re the couple who founded the organization), and I was super excited to go.

Ten NYU students came— there are 44 of us total. We drove over to Doryumu to the City of Refuge compound last Thursday evening, and planned to head out on Friday around 2am. Things started out a bit stressfully, to be perfectly honest. I was having trouble finding transportation for all of us, collecting the money from everyone, and generally getting things organized with my fellow volunteers. It was starting to feel like the trip would never happen.

A few phone calls and lots of prayer later (John pulled me over for a bear hug and gave me a mini-sermon on God’s faithfulness. He is so awesome.) We were on our way and my worries dissolved.

The trip to Lake Volta is about 10 hours, including the wait for the fairy and the ride across the late. This is the largest man-made lake IN THE WORLD; I believe it was created sometime in the 1970s. It is being overfished and the situation has become quite dire— people who depend upon the lake for their income are without any means of supporting themselves or their families. Subsequently, the Volta region of Ghana, and specifically the area surrounding Lake Volta, is extremely poor. This area is also plagued with the phenomenon of single motherhood; fishermen will have several girlfriends from different villages, and then leave. Some women have eight, nine, even ten kids and no father to speak of. All of this contributes to the issue of child trafficking.

We arrived at our host home (John, Stacy, and crew travel to Volta frequently and have arrangements for when they are there) and rested for a bit. It was so refreshing to be on an excursion where there was rest/ reflection time scheduled for us… Afterwards, we grouped to discuss the weekend plans, ate a delicious meal courtesy of Lucy, the COR cook (such a sweetie), and we were on our way.

That afternoon, we went by boat across the lake to a small village, one that Stacy and John had never been to before. The boat ride was unreal. As we made our way across, we stopped to talk to nearby fishermen. We saw a lot of children working the lakes. This is hard labor, and these kids are young. John would hand them lollipops and ask them if they wanted to go to school.

I should probably also mention that COR has volunteers who are from and work in the Volta communities. They do a lot of the research, relationship building, and awareness spreading. I love that this organization focuses so much upon getting to know the communities that they are helping. This is a bit of a tangent but bear with me; there are other NGOs that work to ‘prevent’ child trafficking in the Volta region, only they decided that it would be best to pay traffickers for the children’s freedom. The result? Save one kid, the trafficker will go get two more because he can turn a profit off of them. In 2007, several children were killed as a result of one NGO’s attempts to ‘strong-arm’ traffickers into freeing their slave children. This work takes planning, research, organization, and dedication. It’s not like you can waltz in and change everything— lasting change takes time.

Back to the trip. It was hard for me, as I know it was for everyone else, to see children working the lake. Child labor/ child trafficking are easy to theorize about, but to see it first hand is crazy. I wanted to just snatch the kids and take them somewhere safe, but like I stated above, things don’t work like that.

When we arrived at the village on the other side, we heard music blasting from speakers… in the middle of the huts that created this small community was a raging dance party. I kid you not, it seemed like the entire village was out, dressed their finest, for a Friday afternoon dance. It was kind of awesome. John found the chief of the village immediately, and we set to work— John discussed the issue of trafficking with him and COR’s vision to educate and care for trafficked kids, and the chief was completely on board. John asked to see more of the village, and the chief obliged, sending us with a village man.

Not fifteen feet away from this dance party (which, as it turns out, was to celebrate the birth of the chief’s grandchildren… I’m not sure whether three were born at once or three were having their naming ceremonies around the same time, but it was something like that) were trafficked kids. You can tell by their muscle development, and there are telltale signs of abuse and malnutrition. Also, while everyone else was dancing they were making nets, so… yeah. John talked to them and to their masters, begging for the freedom of each child. There was also a young boy who was completely neglected, though not a slave. He was someone’s stepson, and therefore not taken care of. It breaks my heart.

Ultimately, John and Stacy’s initial visits to the village follow a pattern- talk with the chief, get people on board, point out the problem, begin research. We weren’t looking to free kids that day; it was just a start in that particular village. It was interesting to see the process that they go through when starting negotiations with a new village…

After touring the village, we were led back to the chief. John and him discussed via translator the issue of trafficking in the village for a long time. The chief seemed very eager for COR’s help. To be honest, it seems like any aid from NGOs is sought after by a lot of villages, so it didn’t surprise me that they were so cooperative- if they agree to work towards the eradication of slavery, their children will be better educated and taken care of. Part of CORs mission is to educate as to why slavery hurts everyone, not just the child involved.

Once the negotiations were over, we DANCED! Several girls who were probably about my age challenged me to a dancing competition. I kid you not, they think it’s hilarious when white people dance… I don’t really blame them, but it’s funny that even in remote villages obruni’s have a reputation for our lack of rhythm.

On our way out, we were escorted away from the village by a huge crowd of dancing and singing children and teenagers. I love how they celebrate in Ghana… there was a lot of hugging and a bit more dance competition-ing. They left, and while we had planned to boat home before sundown, there was a storm, which left us stranded on the banks.

Luckily, we were in a ridiculously remote area, which meant that the stars were brilliant. It was beautiful on the banks of the lake and looking up at stars. Eventually we did make our way home, carefully. We arrived in the pitch black of night safe and sound.

The next day was the day camp, followed by the feed/ deworming session. During day camp, village children arrived to do fun activities with us- it was mainly to get to know the people, and to have fun with the kids, than anything else. One of my colleagues had planned an activity where she handed out 500 squares of cloth for kids to illustrate with something meaningful to them, which she plans to make a quilt out of for COR. It was really amazing. I had planned some simple drama games. There were some translation difficulties but I think the kids still had fun- they really liked to jump, so most of our “movement” exercises were spent doing that.

In the process of all of this, I must share that two babies fell asleep on me. Not at the same time. Their mothers/ community women retrieved them eventually, but I was secretly pleased that I had lured two separate babies to sleep. Seriously though they were precious, as were the children we worked with. I am so unworthy of their affections, they get so excited whenever an ‘obruni’ comes around, and it is an honor that I do not deserve. It was a pleasure to spend the morning with these kids, though, and I hope that we gave them a good time.

After day camp we set back to the homestead to put together 300 boxed meals. There is a specific method, so it doesn’t take too long, but let me tell you, unpeeling 300 hardboiled eggs feels like quite the accomplishment.

When everything was ready, we took the food and the deworming meds to the community where we were to hold the feed. The purpose of a community feed, other than to feed people (14 and under only), is to get to know and keep track of children- each child is registered, and COR returns three months after the initial feed to deworm/ feed the same children. If some of the kids are missing inexplicably, they know that there’s a problem. There’s more to it but that’s the jest of it.

Lots of people lined up for the feed. Again, the language barrier presented a problem. Each child needed to be registered- their names, ages, birthplace, etc.— and photographed, before being given meds and then finally their dinner. Another tactic of identifying trafficking is through the registration process. Often trafficked children will not know their ages or even their names.

My job was to keep the line organized and to direct children in an orderly fashion to the registration tables. We only had 300 meals and many many more children showed up (which is to be expected. It is extremely difficult to keep track of more than 300 children in a given community at one time- there aren’t THAT many people working for COR.) Stacy was smart and numbered the kid’s hands in line with a sharpie, so we knew which kids were cutting, and the first 300 there really were the ones to get their meal.

Obviously I can’t pass judgment on hungry children for trying to sneak food, or even on their mothers for trying to get them through the line. But it makes our jobs difficult. I always just tell the kids that they’re stealing from their brothers and sisters, and leave it at that. Patience is so important when working with these big crowds, even though it is chaotic. After dancing, singing, being laughed at, trying to use all 10 of my Twi words, and kissing babies all for the sake of entertaining the line-dwellers, the feed ended. We only got through number 287, which means that a few people slipped the line. I felt really bad for the kids who had numbers but didn’t get through, and for the crowd remaining, who were begging for whatever we had. However, 300 children were fed and dewormed, which means that Stacy and John can determine the trafficking situation in the village AND that 300 kids will be able to lead healthier lives (the worms are a huge problem, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts.)

After the feed we returned to debrief and eat. We talked with John and Stacy for a long time about the organization, the methods, personal stories… they really are doing great work.

So I’ll put in yet another plug for them: visit www.cityofrefugeoutreach.com to learn more and, if you so desire, donate to this worthy cause. They do PayPal, it’s easy as pie.

Sunday morning we awoke early for the return trip. On the way back to Accra we stopped by the COR site again, where everyone got to meet the kids. I was happy that they got that opportunity; everyone fell in love with these children. They are remarkable.

This journey was one of the more life-changing experiences that I’ve had here in Ghana. There are so many populations to be helped, but that doesn’t make it any less necessary. I am moved now more than ever to do my part… once you see a child working on the lake, you can’t really ignore the problem,

Can you?