Why Challenging Heights’s work is so important
This boy is 12 years old but he has stunted growth. He has no footwear and had to be given a cloth to wrap around his shoulders. He has been in slavery for about 3 years and has been physically and emotionally abused. His right hand is swollen, blistered, and badly bruised. He doesn’t cry, he doesn’t smile, he just stares straight ahead, and reluctantly speaks when asked a question.  Survivors of trafficking often are in this condition when rescued. He is an example of why it must stop now.
This boy was rescued in October 2009 by Challenging Heights field staff and taken to our centre in Winneba. His return was the culmination of a search that had begun several weeks earlier, when Challenging Heights received a report from a local teacher that a boy had been sold by his father.
According to the boy’s mother, she had returned home and asked his father where the boy was. The father replied that the boy was in bed. The reality was that he had sold him to a woman in Winneba for 40 cedis (approximately $27). Joshua was taken to Wangara, a fishing village on Ghana’s Volta Lake, and put to work on a fishing boat. When he accidentally tangled a few of the nets, he said his slave master hit his hand with an oar, and slapped him across the face. Although his hand was badly injured, the men continued to force the 12 year old to work.
Meanwhile, Challenging Heights took the case to the police in Winneba, who tried to arrest the boy’s father. He fled and has not been seen.  They also contacted police in Yeji and a traditional village chief in the area to alert them to the situation.
It was only when the boy’s slave master heard that the police were looking for him that they returned him to his home community. The 12 year old’s initial ordeal is over because he is currently being looked after by Challenging Heights, but his fight for justice is just beginning.
After being interviewed by Challenging Heights, the boy was taken to the police station, where the case was reported. The police then contacted the Department of Social Welfare, which recommended that the boy be placed in Challenging Heights’s temporary transitional shelter, to help his recovery.

Police in Winneba are also coordinating with police in Yeji to try and arrest the woman who sold the boy on to the fisherman. Challenging Heights believes she was involved in trafficking another boy in December 2008, but she was not arrested for that offence. That boy was also rescued by Challenging Heights and is currently attending school with Challenging Heights’s support.

Cases like this are common. This boy is fortunate that only his hand was injured. In another case, a trafficked girl was beaten repeatedly on her back with an oar. She now walks with a permanently hunched back and still suffers from to the emotional abuse she was subjected to.