By Caleb Kuleke
Mepe (V/R), Sept. 6, GNA- Reverend Samuel Anthony Kofi Dunya, the President of GlobeServe Ministries International, has called for a decisive and collective effort to eradicate child labour and child trafficking across the country.
He stated that the national laws strictly protect children from exploitation, trafficking, forced labour, and hazardous work, therefore citizens must come together to curb the issue.
The President emphasised that child safety was a collective responsibility, urging the public to pool resources and efforts to guarantee child protection within every community.
Rev Dunya made the call at the Southern Justice Conference in Mepe, in the North Tongu District of the Volta Region, stressing that justice began when ordinary citizens refused to normalise systemic wrongs.
The programme was held under the theme: “The Role of the Citizenry and the Church in Confronting Child Labour, Child Trafficking, and Child Slavery Holistically.”
The President urged the nation to intensify its fight against child exploitation, warning that any country that sacrificed its children ultimately sacrificed its own future.
Rev Dunya stated that a child was not an economic tool or a tradable commodity, but a human being created in the image of God, possessing a name, a future, a voice, and an inherent right to protection.
The President clarified a critical legal boundary, stating that when a child was trafficked, neither the consent of the child nor the parent could justify or excuse the crime.
He cautioned that the nation could not sustain its development if its economic activities relied on the suffering of minors, noting that when children were denied an education, Ghana would lose its next generation of leaders.
Describing the systemic suffering of children under these practices, Rev Dunya characterised child labour, trafficking and modern slavery as an open wound on both local communities and the nation.
Healing this wound completely, he noted, demanded urgent and unified action from all stakeholders, including traditional authorities, religious bodies, and state institutions.
“We cannot build a prosperous Ghana on the backs of exhausted children,” Rev. Dunya stressed, adding that such development was morally weak and unsustainable.
Rev Dunya asked traditional authorities and community opinion leaders to use their influence to address practices that expose children to exploitation and to strengthen community-based child-protection systems.
He said no child should be forced into hazardous work that compromised their health or education, highlighting the scale of the crisis, he pointed to national data revealing that over 20,000 Ghanaian children were currently affected by child labour, with many trapped in hazardous work environments.
Rev Dunya cited Proverbs 31:8 to remind the Church of its divine mandate to speak and act for those silenced by fear, poverty, deception, or violence.
“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,” he urged.
The President asserted that the Church must serve as a sanctuary where children encounter protection, truth, healing and hope.
He warned that when children grew up traumatised and marginalised, entire communities pay the price through cycles of poverty, unemployment, ill-health, violence, and broken families.
Rev Dunya identified areas around Lake Volta and communities plagued by poverty, broken homes, high school-dropout rates, and unsafe migration as high-risk zones where lack of opportunity left children highly vulnerable to traffickers.
Superintendent of Police (ASP) Christopher Asante Ahoku, the Battor-Aveyime District Commander, urged citizens to support law enforcement by proactively reporting criminal activities in their neighborhoods.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), ASP Ahoku emphasised that community collaboration was vital to combating crimes like child trafficking and child labour.
He reaffirmed the police service’s commitment to tackling these offenses to ensure the protection and wellbeing of the child, and public safety.
Mr Bright Calvin Badzi, an official from the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) in North Tongu, called for concerted action to safeguard the country’s future.
Mr Badzi described child trafficking and exploitation as grave, and disheartening crimes that must never be shielded or concealed by anyone.
He urged all citizens to assist the appropriate authorities in nipping the menace in the bud.
GNA
Edited by Maxwell Awumah/Benjamin Mensah