A GNA Feature by Opesika Tetteh Puplampu
Ada, Aug. 15, GNA – At six years old, Wisdom Tetteh Dortumo did not understand what trafficking meant; he only knew that while his brothers and sisters went to school, he was being taken away from home.
His father’s senior brother had visited his parents at Anyaman in the Ada West District of the Greater Accra Region and told them he would take Wisdom to work on the river at Accra Town, a village near Yeji in the Bono Region.
The promise was that he would work and eventually be sent to school. His parents, who could not afford his education, agreed.
“They came to see my parents, and they allowed him to take me away,” Wisdom recalled.
What followed was not the opportunity his family had imagined, but 15 years of hard labour, hunger, fear and abuse on the river.
Today, Wisdom is a survivor of child trafficking. His experience offers a painful window into what happens when poverty, deception and vulnerability combine to rob a child, not only of childhood, but also of opportunities that may never return.
“We leave for work and spend more than 12 hours on the river with no food or water. Sometimes when you feel thirsty, you have to fetch the river water. Sometimes there is a green-like substance in it, but you have no choice because you are hungry and thirsty,” he said.
“If they were leaving for fishing around 03:00 a.m. and you couldn’t wake up to join them, our master would fetch cold water and pour it on you on your bed, wetting your entire body and the bed. That’s how they woke us up,” he narrated.
Sometimes, arriving late at the riverside meant swimming into the darkness to meet the canoe.
Wisdom was also ordered to dive beneath the river to untie fishing nets trapped around trees.
He knew the danger but had no choice.
“Sometimes boats meet heavy storms on the river, which end up killing many people. So, when we get to places where people died in boat accidents like this, going down there to remove the nets becomes scarier because some of our colleagues end up dying in the process,” he said.
On one occasion, a tree under the water injured his testicles. He was not taken to the hospital.
“They used plaster on it, and we had to return to the river the following day,” he recalled.
Stollen Childhood
Wisdom’s story is not an isolated one; for children in vulnerable fishing and coastal communities, trafficking can begin with something as ordinary as a promise of work, education or a better life.
Wisdom said he and others were deceived into believing they were going to work under conditions that would ultimately benefit them.
“They told us they were building houses for us, but later we realised that they had lied to us,” he said.
While other children attended school, Wisdom worked; “What pained me most is that their kids were schooling while we were working tirelessly,” he said.
His ambition was to become a medical doctor; today, that dream has been shattered.
“My ambition to become a medical doctor has shattered. I don’t even have a place to sleep,” he said.
Wisdom eventually escaped and returned home, starting school from Primary One and, despite the enormous educational gap, managing to complete junior high school.
Financial difficulties, however, prevented him from continuing his education.
With support from civil society organisations, including the International Justice Mission (IJM), he received training in tailoring and is now completing the training with hopes of building a better life.
His experience has also given him a new purpose.
Wisdom now speaks against child trafficking and urges children and their parents to be cautious about promises that appear too good to be true.
He wants other children to have what he lost: an education and the freedom to choose their future.
When trauma makes memory difficult
Wisdom’s experience also demonstrates why survivors need to be approached with care long after they have escaped exploitation.
At a capacity-building workshop organised bythe IJM for journalists in the Ada East and Ada West districts, child protection experts challenged the assumption that victims who give inconsistent accounts are necessarily being dishonest.
Madam Vidah Mamle Tetteh, a trauma-informed care specialist with the IJM, explained that traumatic experiences could affect how the brain processed and recalled events.
Victims may experience physical abuse, emotional torture, forced labour, traumatic loss and repeated exposure to violence, all of which can affect their ability to remember events clearly and chronologically.
“When a victim struggles to tell the same story twice, it does not necessarily mean they are lying,” she explained.
Experts therefore urged journalists, investigators and prosecutors to approach survivors with patience and empathy, noting that pressuring victims to provide perfect accounts could deepen their trauma and undermine efforts to secure justice.
The hidden face of trafficking
Trafficking does not always begin with abduction. Sometimes it begins with a relative visiting a poor household. Sometimes it comes in the form of an employment opportunity or an offer of education.
According to IJM, deceptive recruitment remains a common pathway into trafficking, particularly among vulnerable children.
Mr Richard Offei, Community Engagement Specialist at IJM, said many rescued children or youth lost their sense of identity and self-worth after exploitation.
“They often blame themselves,” he observed.
Contact tracing by the organisation has shown that some victims were deceived or lured rather than physically forced into the situation.
Promises of apprenticeship, schooling, better living conditions or employment can eventually become forced labour, domestic servitude, commercial sexual exploitation or hazardous work.
Wisdom’s experience reflects that deception. He did not leave home believing he was entering 15 years of hardship. He left because the adults around him believed or were made to believe that the arrangement could offer him something better.
Child labour as a warning sign
Although child labour and child trafficking schemes are distinct offences under Ghanaian law, experts say the two can be closely connected.
Data from the Ada East District Directorate of Social Welfare and Community Development shows that between January and May 2026, it recorded 43 cases involving children engaged in hazardous activities, including fishing, salt winning and street hawking.
According to District Director Mr Enoch Addy Bampoe, many of the affected children were between eight and 14 years old, particularly in fishing communities along the Volta Estuary and salt-producing communities around the Songor Lagoon.
“Child labour is not training; it is exploitation,” he said, and added: “When a 10-year-old child spends all day in a canoe or carrying heavy loads of salt instead of being in school, we are stealing that child’s future.”
For Wisdom, those stolen years cannot simply be returned. Fifteen years on the river meant 15 years away from a classroom. When he eventually returned to school, he had to start from Primary One. His experience shows that the consequences of trafficking can continue long after a child escapes.
Poverty remains powerful recruiter
For many families, sending a child away is not necessarily an act of cruelty. Sometimes, it is a decision made in desperation.
Parents unable to afford school fees, food, clothing and other basic needs may accept offers from relatives, acquaintances or strangers who promise to take care of their children.
Madam Esther Adinorkie Lawerteh, Health and Environmental Officer of the Volta Resilient Foundation, said economic hardship remained one of the strongest drivers of child trafficking.
She cautioned parents against sending children to live with others simply because they were struggling financially.
Some guardians may genuinely provide care; others may exploit the child’s vulnerability.
Children may be denied education, forced into labour or exposed to abuse and unsafe living conditions.
“Many children who are sent away from home end up in situations where they are deprived of their rights and opportunities. Some are forced into labour, while others suffer abuse that affects their physical and emotional well-being,” she warned.
She urged families facing hardship to seek assistance from extended family members, community leaders, social welfare institutions and other support programmes rather than give out their children.
Madam Nana Afua Amanfu, another child protection expert, explained that trafficking should be understood through three elements: the act, the means and the purpose.
The act may involve recruiting, transporting or harbouring a person. The means may include deception, coercion or abuse of vulnerability. The purpose is exploitation.
Without understanding these elements, communities may unknowingly facilitate trafficking.
Fake job advertisements, promises of overseas employment, offers of free education and demands for cheap labour can all become tools for traffickers.
Stakeholders’ role
Their reports can expose exploitation, influence policy and trigger interventions, but insensitive reporting can further harm survivors.
Trauma-informed journalism requires patience, accuracy and empathy – listening not only for the dramatic details of an ordeal but also for the realities survivors face after rescue.
Wisdom’s story demonstrates why; escaping the river did not restore the years he lost. It did not bring back his childhood, return his dream of becoming a medical doctor or immediately provide financial security.
Beyond rescue, it must be emphasised that the government institutions cannot eliminate trafficking alone.
Parents, teachers, traditional authorities, religious leaders, community volunteers, journalists and ordinary citizens all have roles to play.
The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has warned that children missing school to engage in fishing, farming or trading is not merely an educational concern but also a child-protection issue.
Community child protection committees supported by organisations such as the Volta Resilient Foundation are helping to identify vulnerable children, raise awareness and strengthen referral systems.
But rescuing a child is only the beginning. Survivors may need counselling, education, vocational training, family reintegration, economic support and long-term psychosocial care.
Without such support, they may remain vulnerable to exploitation or struggle to rebuild their lives.
Wisdom is still rebuilding. He is completing his tailoring training and wants to use his experience to protect other children. At six, he was taken away from school.
At 21, after 15 years on the river, he returned home carrying memories of hunger, fear, injuries and lost opportunities.
But he also returned with a determination to ensure that other children do not suffer the same fate.
The fight against trafficking, therefore, is not simply a fight against traffickers. It is also a fight against poverty, deception, ignorance and social practices that create opportunities for exploitation.
Every child protected from hazardous labour, every parent empowered to keep a child safe, every survivor believed despite fragmented memories, and every community that chooses vigilance over silence is another step towards breaking the chains.
Because no child should have to trade a childhood for survival.
For Wisdom, the dream of becoming a medical doctor may have been shattered. But, his determination to help other children find a better future remains alive.
GNA
Edited by Laudia Anyorkor Nunoo/Benjamin Mensah
Feature Writer: Opesika Tetteh Puplampu, GNA