Is there a future for our children?
Gilbert Boyefio
02/09/2006
An estimated 246 million children are trafficked each year out of which some 2 million, mainly girls, but also a significant number of boys, are exploited every year in the multi-billion dollar sex industry, specifically prostitution and pornography world wide, according to statistics from the United Nations Children's Fund.
Trafficking in children is a global problem affecting a large number of children. It is lucrative and linked with criminal activities and corruption, which is often hidden and hard to address.
Trafficking always violates the child"s right to grow up in a family environment. In addition, children who have been trafficked face a range of dangers, including violence and sexual abuse.
There is a high demand for trafficked children worldwide and they are often used as cheap labour or exploited sexually.
Most families and the children are unaware of the dangers involved in the act, believing or lured to believe, that better employment opportunities and lifestyles lie in other countries or regions.
This is a universal problem affecting both developed and developing countries. But Africa is the most affected by this canker as most of the trafficking takes place on the continent.
Children from Mali, Burkina Faso, and Ghana are trafficked to Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Gabon. Some of these children are sent as far as the Middle East and Europe.
In Ghana the situation is worse. Sexual activities are often seen as a private matter, making communities reluctant to act and intervene in cases of sexual exploitation. These attitudes make children more vulnerable to sexual exploitation.
At a seminar held recently to disseminate a research report on sexual exploitation of children in Ghana conducted in the La and Osu communities by the Ghana NGO Coalition of the Child, with support from the Ghana AIDS Commission, heartbreaking revelations were made.
The study highlighted the facts that sexual exploitations by tourists and locals of boys ranging from 10 to 17 years are on the ascendancy.
These tourists in their attempt to sexually abuse these children adopt a number of strategies including promises to send the children abroad, buying them gifts, such as mobile phones and cash in foreign exchange.
In an interview with undercover fieldworkers of the GNCRC an American-Peruvian child exploiter said his main aim of traveling to Ghana was to have fun with children.
The Statesman by courtesy of GNCRC has reproduced part of the interview:
Q. What do you come to do here in Ghana?
A. Well, to visit places and have fun. I am a professional carpenter in America, so I make a lot of money. I need to take some days off to have fun, but not in my country, but mostly in African countries. I have been to Zimbabwe and Ivory Coast but I like Ghana.
Q. Why?
A. Because the people are nice and accommodating. Although most people do not know about homosexuality it is easy to get one involved.
Q. How?
A. Because of the interest they have in you and the ability to satisfy them (pay).
Q. What type of sex do you engage in when you visit Ghana?
A. Well, I engaged in various types of sex, with women and men, but I do prefer boys, especially young boys.
Q. How much do you pay them?
A. It depends, sometimes around $50 to $300.
Q. Where do you meet the boys you have sex with?
A. At places like where we are now (the beach), but sometimes I make some of my boys connect me.
Q. Where do you usually take them?
A. To hotels where I sleep.
Q. What are some of the dangers?
A. I do not see any danger because I do not live in this country permanently. But actually I will talk about some dangers as in terms of the spread of some sexual sickness. Sometimes you can be caught by the police, it happened to me sometime ago.
Q. Have you ever tested for HIV/AIDS?
A. Yes, but I will not tell you the results. I am sure I protect myself any time I have sex. I also go for medical check ups in the US.
Q. Why do you not practice this in your own country?
A. It is not easy to see children loitering about at night or even at the beaches and drinking bars alone. I only have anal sex in my country with people who know what they are about.
Q. Are you trying to say that people in Ghana do not know what they are about?
A. Well, not really. Even if they know they always want to hide.
Q. Are you not exploiting them?
A. In what way? As much as I make them feel good by giving them money it is all good.
Apart from this heartbreaking information some Ghanaians perceived these exploitations as good fortune, whilst others do not mind so long as they continue to have their fair share of the money the practice yields.
In fact, several questions jumps into ones mind when the issue of child exploitation comes up.
One may ask what the security agencies, the Ministries of Women and Children Affairs, and Tourism and Diasporan Relations are doing in the face of these shocking revelations.
It is about time that the various international and national conventions and laws on the rights of the child are implemented by the appropriate authorities.
The GNCRC Study advocated for a well structured and systematic community based sensitisation on sexual exploitation of children. And the provision of counseling centres for parents within communities.
If we do not stop child exploitation now, it might become a vicious cycle and the future of our youth will be bleak. Now is the time to do something about it. Not later.
02/09/2006
An estimated 246 million children are trafficked each year out of which some 2 million, mainly girls, but also a significant number of boys, are exploited every year in the multi-billion dollar sex industry, specifically prostitution and pornography world wide, according to statistics from the United Nations Children's Fund.
Trafficking in children is a global problem affecting a large number of children. It is lucrative and linked with criminal activities and corruption, which is often hidden and hard to address.
Trafficking always violates the child"s right to grow up in a family environment. In addition, children who have been trafficked face a range of dangers, including violence and sexual abuse.
There is a high demand for trafficked children worldwide and they are often used as cheap labour or exploited sexually.
Most families and the children are unaware of the dangers involved in the act, believing or lured to believe, that better employment opportunities and lifestyles lie in other countries or regions.
This is a universal problem affecting both developed and developing countries. But Africa is the most affected by this canker as most of the trafficking takes place on the continent.
Children from Mali, Burkina Faso, and Ghana are trafficked to Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Gabon. Some of these children are sent as far as the Middle East and Europe.
In Ghana the situation is worse. Sexual activities are often seen as a private matter, making communities reluctant to act and intervene in cases of sexual exploitation. These attitudes make children more vulnerable to sexual exploitation.
At a seminar held recently to disseminate a research report on sexual exploitation of children in Ghana conducted in the La and Osu communities by the Ghana NGO Coalition of the Child, with support from the Ghana AIDS Commission, heartbreaking revelations were made.
The study highlighted the facts that sexual exploitations by tourists and locals of boys ranging from 10 to 17 years are on the ascendancy.
These tourists in their attempt to sexually abuse these children adopt a number of strategies including promises to send the children abroad, buying them gifts, such as mobile phones and cash in foreign exchange.
In an interview with undercover fieldworkers of the GNCRC an American-Peruvian child exploiter said his main aim of traveling to Ghana was to have fun with children.
The Statesman by courtesy of GNCRC has reproduced part of the interview:
Q. What do you come to do here in Ghana?
A. Well, to visit places and have fun. I am a professional carpenter in America, so I make a lot of money. I need to take some days off to have fun, but not in my country, but mostly in African countries. I have been to Zimbabwe and Ivory Coast but I like Ghana.
Q. Why?
A. Because the people are nice and accommodating. Although most people do not know about homosexuality it is easy to get one involved.
Q. How?
A. Because of the interest they have in you and the ability to satisfy them (pay).
Q. What type of sex do you engage in when you visit Ghana?
A. Well, I engaged in various types of sex, with women and men, but I do prefer boys, especially young boys.
Q. How much do you pay them?
A. It depends, sometimes around $50 to $300.
Q. Where do you meet the boys you have sex with?
A. At places like where we are now (the beach), but sometimes I make some of my boys connect me.
Q. Where do you usually take them?
A. To hotels where I sleep.
Q. What are some of the dangers?
A. I do not see any danger because I do not live in this country permanently. But actually I will talk about some dangers as in terms of the spread of some sexual sickness. Sometimes you can be caught by the police, it happened to me sometime ago.
Q. Have you ever tested for HIV/AIDS?
A. Yes, but I will not tell you the results. I am sure I protect myself any time I have sex. I also go for medical check ups in the US.
Q. Why do you not practice this in your own country?
A. It is not easy to see children loitering about at night or even at the beaches and drinking bars alone. I only have anal sex in my country with people who know what they are about.
Q. Are you trying to say that people in Ghana do not know what they are about?
A. Well, not really. Even if they know they always want to hide.
Q. Are you not exploiting them?
A. In what way? As much as I make them feel good by giving them money it is all good.
Apart from this heartbreaking information some Ghanaians perceived these exploitations as good fortune, whilst others do not mind so long as they continue to have their fair share of the money the practice yields.
In fact, several questions jumps into ones mind when the issue of child exploitation comes up.
One may ask what the security agencies, the Ministries of Women and Children Affairs, and Tourism and Diasporan Relations are doing in the face of these shocking revelations.
It is about time that the various international and national conventions and laws on the rights of the child are implemented by the appropriate authorities.
The GNCRC Study advocated for a well structured and systematic community based sensitisation on sexual exploitation of children. And the provision of counseling centres for parents within communities.
If we do not stop child exploitation now, it might become a vicious cycle and the future of our youth will be bleak. Now is the time to do something about it. Not later.
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