General News of Saturday, 5 July 2008

Source: GNA

NGO to rescue 60 children from hazardous work

Accra, July 5, GNA- The Association of People for Practical Life Education (APPLE), an anti-child labour non-governmental organisation (NGO), is to rescue 60 children from child labour in the Volta and Brong Ahafo Regions.

Mr James Jack Dawson, Executive Director of the NGO, told GNA on Saturday in Accra that the first batch of five girls and five boys between the ages 4-17 years had been identified and were currently at Atebubu receiving counselling and medical care. He said Geneva Global an international donor was sponsoring the project which included micro-finance to assist parents who would be re-integration with their rescued children in communities such as Avegorme, Adakorpe, Adidome in the North Tongu district of the Volta region.

Mr Dawson said the children who were mostly engaged in fishing, farming and household chores were also deprived of education. He said with the passage of the Child Trafficking Act, some fishermen had become reluctant in releasing child labourers under the pretext that they were taken them to school and called on the authorities to check the phenomenon.