Challenging Heights has provided financial support valued at GHC250,000 to 368 fishermen in Winneba, to help the beneficiaries cope with the impact of this year’s fishing closed season. The beneficiaries were carefully selected from amongst those who are caregivers of children of school-going age, and whose sources of income have seized as a result of the close season.

Beneficiaries of this support received cash amounts ranging between GHC500 and GHC1,000, per the needs of the individuals. According to Challenging Heights, this cash support is meant for various purposes including the repair of fishing gear, support for their children’s education, and for the women in the value chain to engage in petty trading.

A couple of weeks ago the Minister of Fisheries and Aqua Culture announced a suspension of all fishing activities for July, rendering fisherfolks within the fishing value, with no alternative income sources for the period.

Presenting the financial packages, the President of Challenging Heights, James Kofi Annan, expressed his displeasure towards the Ghana government for not doing enough to mitigate the impact of the close season on the fishermen and fishmongers whose livelihoods are being affected.

He said artisanal fishing directly employs over 200,000, and over 2.2 million people in the fishing value chain. “Asking all these men and women not to work for four weeks without providing appropriate mitigation makes the fishermen more vulnerable to poverty, and consequently affects the education of their children”, James Kofi Annan argued.

Challenging Heights is a leading local Ghanaian anti-slavery/human trafficking organization that supports vulnerable fishing and farming communities in 12 out of the 16 regions in Ghana. This year the organization has so far supported 350 SHS students, 245 TVET Students, and 235 Tertiary students across the country.

Challenging Heights also supported 320 farmers with farm inputs during the farming season, and is currently supporting over 500 children who have been rescued from worst forms of child labour, and trafficking situations, as well as over 600 women in various livelihoods programs.

The organisation has, in its history, rescued and supported several thousands of children, women and youth out of poverty and out of various vulnerabilities. Challenging Heights also engages in advocacy at different levels within Ghana.

A couple of years ago the Ghana government introduced the annual fishing closed season, to improve fish stock in the nation’s marine waters. Fishermen and fishmongers have lamented the untold hardship the closed-season policy plunged them into.

Given the consequences of the closed season, Challenging Heights is calling on Ghana to provide appropriate insurance packages for the affected individuals whose livelihoods depend on the fishing value chain.