It is estimated that about 19 thousand Ghanaian youth who should have been in school to realize their future dreams to become valuable assets for national development have rather found themselves engaged in the worse forms of child labour over the country for no fault of theirs.

The General Secretary of the Christian Council, Rev. Dr. Kwabena Frimpong, has warned of a risky future for the nation due to the manner in which the future leaders of the nation are being exploited for negative reasons.

He has therefore called on all those who control the national purse to help create hope for our future leaders for a better Ghana tomorrow.

Rev. Opuni-Frimpong was speaking at an event by the Christian Council of Ghana to launch a documentary dubbed “Echoes of Pain,” to raise the voice of the voiceless in society for a prosperous future.

The challenge of child labour throughout the nation has been attributed to a number of factors including broken homes, poverty, irresponsibility of some parents and lack of jobs.

According to Rev. Dr. Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong, about 1.8 million teenage girls and boys have been exploited into all kinds of social challenges including prostitution and head potters, popularly known as “Kayaye” at the market places.

Others are involved in stone cracking, grounding and sieving the powder, fishing whilst others are being engaged in Cocoa farms and the rest found themselves on the street selling dog chains, tooth pick and catapults.

These youth are involved in these struggles on a daily basis just to make a living or fend for themselves.

Unfortunately for most of them too, they do not have a place to lay their head and end up using the streets as their sleeping place in the night.

This exposes them to miscreants who ended up raping them. The resultant effect of rape is teenage pregnancy and the contraction of sexually transmitted diseases such as Gonorrhea, Syphilis, Candyditis and the deadly HIV/AIDS.

Rev. Dr. Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong indicated that, the future of Ghana depend on the kind of youth the leaders leave behind to continue the leadership role after they have retired or pass on.

The Programme Manager of the Christina Council of Ghana, Madam Joyce Steiner, also stated that every Ghanaian child has the rights to education, rights to their physical and moral well-being, and the right to enjoy the benefit from the country’s natural resources.

Madam Steiner explained that works that do not affect the child’s health, physical and moral well-being or interfere with their education and development are not regarded as child labour.

Such activities she noted provide children with useful skills and learning experiences that prepare them to become productive adults in society.

She urged citizens to distinguish between activities that contribute to the growth and development of children and the welfare of their families from those that are injurious to their survival.

Madam Steiner called for a collective effort from all stakeholders including parents, political leaders, tradition rulers, religious bodies to help change lives of the youth for the better against the menace in the Ghanaians society.