Challenging Heights has rescued twenty-five (25) trafficked children, aged between six and fourteen years, from forced labour on Lake Volta in a weekend operation conducted in collaboration with the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of the Ghana Police Service and the Department of Social Welfare.
The rescued children comprise eighteen (18) boys and seven (7) girls. The higher number of boys rescued is consistent with a pattern the organisation continues to encounter in fishing-related child labour and trafficking on Lake Volta, where children are taken away from their families, denied education, and subjected to hazardous work that no child should endure.
All 25 children have been safely moved to the Challenging Heights Recovery Centre, where they are currently receiving medical care, psychosocial support, and full recovery. The operation rescued children from several communities stretching across the Bono East and Northern Regions of Ghana.
The rescue comes on National Children’s Day, with this year’s theme — “Amplifying Children’s Voices on Abuse in Ghana: Promoting Child Protection, Participation, and Advocacy” — highlighting the painful reality that millions of children face abuse, exploitation, and neglect in silence.
In Ghana, an estimated 3.4 million children experience physical or emotional abuse, while nearly one in five children aged 5–17 is engaged in child labour. According to the Global Slavery Index, roughly 50 million people are trapped in modern slavery globally on any given day, and about one in four victims is a child.
Approximately 20,000 children are trafficked or engaged in forced child labour in the fishing industry on Lake Volta. Available data indicates that almost 90% of children working on the lake suffer from physical, emotional, or verbal abuse.
Dr. James Kofi Annan, Executive Director of Challenging Heights and a survivor of seven years of child slavery on Lake Volta, said the rescue operation underscores the urgent need for systemic action.
“Every child we rescue is a life saved, but we cannot rescue our way out of this crisis. The government must adequately resource child protection and anti-trafficking institutions to ensure timely investigation, rescue, care and prosecution,” Dr. Annan stated.
The organisation has issued a series of urgent calls to action:
- To the Government of Ghana:Â Adequately resource child protection and anti-trafficking institutions, including the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit and the Department of Social Welfare, to ensure timely investigation, rescue, care and prosecution.
- To law enforcement and the justice system:Â Ensure that those who traffic, abuse and exploit children face the consequences under Ghanaian law.
- To parents and caregivers:Â Listen to children, take their concerns seriously and reject practices that expose them to hazardous labour, abuse or exploitation.
- To every Ghanaian:Â Actively report suspected cases of child abuse and trafficking to authorities. Silence enables exploitation.
For more than two decades, Challenging Heights has worked to rescue nearly three thousand children and young people from trafficking and exploitation, support survivors through recovery, education and reintegration, and strengthen families and communities to prevent exploitation before it happens.
In the first half of 2026 alone, Challenging Heights and its partners supported the rescue of 144 victims of trafficking and modern slavery. The organisation, a survivor-led Ghanaian NGO, operates the largest rehabilitation centre for trafficking victims in the country.
Despite these efforts, the scale of the crisis remains staggering. The Global Slavery Index estimates that over 91,000 people in Ghana are trapped in modern slavery, with more than 21,000 children believed to be working in forced labour on Lake Volta alone .
The ILO estimates that forced labour generates illegal profits in excess of $235 billion annually worldwide .
Human trafficking is an offence punishable under Ghana’s Human Trafficking Act, 2005 (Act 694), with convicted offenders facing a minimum of five years and a maximum of 25 years imprisonment .
On this National Children’s Day, Challenging Heights is calling on every Ghanaian to be vigilant and report suspected cases of child abuse and trafficking to the authorities. “Silence enables exploitation,” the organisation warns.
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