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Child Tracking

Child trafficking is defined by the United Nations as the “recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring and/or receipt” of a child for  of exploitation. In simpler words, child trafficking is a practice where  are illegally sold and transferred for the purposes of forced labour or sexual exploitation. The saddest thing about this  is that it is mostly overlooked by everyone involved. The transfer mostly happens between  members who see nothing wrong in taking a relative’s child to stay and work with them.

One of the destinations in Ghana were patterns in urban areas with an increasing demand for imported food especially  and rice which is not packed with so much nutrients compared to the locally produced ones.

, due to change in climatic conditions, farmers are  faced with the challenge of unstable production.

The immediate causes of malnutrition are inadequate dietary intake and diseases that is, when  does not consume adequate  or the is food lacking in most of the food nutrients, he/she might end up falling sick and when you fall sick you lose  and that leads to malnutrition over time, the underlying causes are inadequate care practices, inadequate/no  services, facilities and  and lack of care practices for mothers and  especially, and the basic causes are political and economic structure, as well as the level of  of home makers.

Consequences of Malnutrition

The major nutrition  in the world are   malnutrition which consist of stunting (that is, low height for age), wasting (low weight for height), and underweight (low weight for age), iron ,  A n to slave masters in  of  or goods.

In all, the chief blame should be given to the national institutions for their weak  implementations. There are laws stating that children as a matter of compulsion should be in school at the basic level. This educational act is not enforced by any  neither is it advertised or publicised by any governmental institutions. Parents therefore see nothing wrong in leaving children to wonder about along the shores of Ghana, making their children susceptible to trafficking. In other words, the government has failed to let parents know that children are treasures of the state rather than personal  of their parents. It is surprising to note that there are currently no laws banning children from working on the Volta  or any waterbody for that matter. So in such  a menace like child trafficking can only but thrive.

The practice of child trafficking is having devastating effect on both the children and the country at large. The children taken into slavery are subjected to harsh treatments such as poor nutrition and inhumane punishments at the least mistake made. These children end up losing their childhood as their being exposed to work and situations far beyond their age. Some of these children, when taken to the lake at tender ages have their names even changed to prevent them from tracing their original family. Such children lose their sense of identity knowing only his master as his family. Children trafficked to work on the lake drown at alarming rates while their masters watch on without concern. The ones who are fortunate enough to escape death also end up contracting diseases like Bilharzia, Hepatitis B, River Blindness, spinal problems and other chronic diseases.

The government over the years has had little to zero prosecutions on issues relating to child trafficking. This is act that has put Ghana in the bad books of the United States who are one of our highest economic benefactors. We have been on a ‘tier two’ rating for our lack of action on the issue and risk falling into ‘tier three’ by the end of the month of June 2017. If this happens, the country risks losing six hundred million dollars which has enabled the country undertake educational, health and infrastructural developments over the years. In a new government that seeks to undertake ambitious projects such as one district-one factory and a million dollar for each constituency, the crippling effect of losing this money will be hugely felt.

It is not that we do not have anti-human trafficking institutions in the country but these units cannot boast of even a single boat to be used for rescues. The government before providing such logistics must make sure that they have reviewed issues with regards to child trafficking and labour to ensure that any loopholes in the laws are addressed.

There are already non-governmental organizations such as Challenging Heights and Free the Slaves who rescue hundreds of children every year on the hell-like lake. The government can complement the work of these organizations by prosecuting the slave masters and traffickers as their limited funds are unable to cover that aspect of child trafficking. If prosecutions are not done, there is no way the act can be seen as a crime.

Child Rights Clubs should also be created and made compulsory in schools to ensure that children are educated on their rights especially with regards to education. They will be able to fight for these rights and become child advocates. They will also be able to report if any of their colleagues are taken out of school to go and work on the lake. It should take a combined effort of the National Commision for Civic Education and the Ministry of Education. As said earlier, the compulsory free basic education should be enforced and if possible sanction should be given to any parent who has a child of school-going age out of school.

Children are meant to be gifts from God not items to be sold. Eighty Cedis, which cannot feed you for a month, should never be equivalent to a child’s lifetime of slavery. These slave masters buy children and subject them to harsh working conditions while their own children smile and laugh with their friends in school. A child’s future is not worth selling for a temporary need. We all need to rise up and fight for our future or there will soon be no future for us to fight for. Let’s end child trafficking today, let’s end child trafficking now.

Emmanuel Agyei-Poku, Student, University of Education -Winneba. Ghana., 2018

MALNUTRITION

Malnutrition is over or under nourishment of the body which deprives it to function properly.

Globally, an estimated two billion people are affected by deficiencies of essential vitamins and minerals, collectively known as hidden hunger (Muthayya et al, 2013). This negatively impacts on  and economic development.

Causes of Malnutrition

The Ghanaian diet is solely on starchy roots and cereals, the dietary supply meets populations  requirements but the share of , vitamins and minerals is lower than the recommended dietary intake. Rapid  has modified   patterns in urban areas with an increasing demand for imported food especially  and rice which is not packed with so much nutrients compared to the locally produced ones.

, due to change in climatic conditions, farmers are  faced with the challenge of unstable production.

The immediate causes of malnutrition are inadequate dietary intake and diseases that is, when  does not consume adequate  or the is food lacking in most of the food nutrients, he/she might end up falling sick and when you fall sick you lose  and that leads to malnutrition over time, the underlying causes are inadequate care practices, inadequate/no health services, facilities and  and lack of care practices for mothers and children especially, and the basic causes are political and economic structure, as well as the level of  of home makers.

Consequences of Malnutrition

The major nutrition  in the world are   malnutrition which consist of stunting (that is, low height for age), wasting (low weight for height), and underweight (low weight for age), iron ,  A  oy hypovitaminosis A, iodine deficiency disorders as well as nutrition-related chronic diseases.

Malnutrition potentiates the effect of  on child mortality, impaired cognitive and behavioral development, reduced  and  and poor reproductive .

Solution to Malnutrition

Economic growth has been sluggish, poverty rates have remained high, rural infrastructure remains limited, and there is still heavy reliance on international markets.

Malnutrition is a complex problem that cannot be solved by a single stakeholder or sector, a variety of actions is thereby required to deal with the immediate and underlying causes of malnutrition and hunger.

 Interventions to boost agricultural productivity growth are mostly effective in promotion of food and nutrition security when complemented by social protection measures such as the school meal programme designed to procure food from smallholder farmer organizations and cooperatives, this in turn raises producer incomes while stimulating the local supply of more nutritious, diverse and safe foods by small family farmers.

Thanks to efficient promotion programs, early initiation of breastfeeding is becoming more widely practiced.

Households should also be cautious about the sanitary condition within their households and their surroundings.

Farmers should be taught and encouraged to practice irrigation as well which will help in at least enabling them have a stable production of their food crops.

Housewives should be educated on how to combine and prepare food ingredients especially fruits and vegetables to help retain the nutrients.

Conclusion

Malnutrition is a serious issue that needs to be solved, one might not be able to notice the effects earlier enough.

There are so many people out there especially children under five suffering from malnutrition, so every one of us has a part to play to combat malnutrition in our societies, and that is by advocating to the home makers what should be done to prevent this issue of malnutrition especially in our rural communities.

Seidu Angela Azimah, Student. Ghana- Tamale. 2018