UNDER-AGED GHANAIAN CHILDREN ESCAPE SCHOOL TO GO DIG FOR "SCRAPS" FOR SALE.

Naza

While the noise breeds from every corner in Ghana about many youths getting themselves soaked in spiritual means duping foreigners on the internet to get rich in a puff of wind (locally termed “Sakawa”), the trafficking of “scraps” has become another booming venture for the youth, especially the school drop puts.

On the major streets of Ghana, especially Accra, these days, it is not uncommon to see young and energetic males pushing and pulling trucks on house to house basis in search of scraps. The scraps they assemble in ranges from broken down engines, cars, motorbikes, bicycles, tractors and wheelbarrows; damaged electronic gadgets such as TVs, Radio Sets, DVDs and Computers. They also assemble damaged roofing sheets, broken pots, buckets, saucepans, and damaged car rims too. All these scraps they gather are weighed up at a depot where they are paid cash. The scraps are then loaded onto big trucks for the factory locally and also some shipped outside for recycling. Some goldsmiths also buy these scraps to get some wares manufactured. The males who do this “scrap business” are between the ages of 15 and 55years. Most of them are from various deprived communities in Ghan a. They live in slums and in villages which are very remote. About 80% of these scrap dealers hail from the northern parts of Ghana precisely from the Upper East, Upper West and Northern Regions. Some also come from the Nzema land (one of the ethnic groups in Ghana) in the Brong-Ahafo Region, all in Ghana.

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This job avenue, which started about 15 years ago but due to its unpleasant nature, has now been rejuvenated with many youths thrown on board. It's actually the latest booming job that favours the unemployed, particularly the “school drop-outs”. Interestingly, foreigners have also join in. Males from as far as Burkina Faso, Benin, Togo and the Ivory Coast are now trafficking themselves in the capital city, Accra to work as “scrap” collectors. Even some travel all the way from as far as Niger and Mali.

With a focal view at this venture, children in Ghana are also pushed into the business. Undoubtedly, they are from the slums, deprived areas and remote villages too. Though classified as a “dirty and useless” job, children as young as 5 years are often, these days, seen at garbage sites digging for scraps. This they term “Part Time”. It's called “Part Time” because they use their leisure time to work. “Part Time” somewhat fits well into the current trend in Ghana, now that analysts in the country describe Ghana's economy to be a “collapsed one”. In the wake of these Global Economic Crisis, (GEC), these children, though under-aged could be patching up the loop-holes of Ghana economy through this “scrap business”. It could increase Ghana's GDP by at least some percentage. Who knows! The kids who are not even school drop-outs are also in this v enture. But, some of these kids actually do it at the odd time.

Prince Naza, an 11-year-old boy who is in Primary 4, at the Ho Bankoe R.C. Basic School in Ho, the Volta Regional capital of Ghana is one of the many children who do “Part Time” at the odd hour. Naza has both parents alive and cheerfully lives with them. Naza, whose dad is a “second-hand “clothes' seller at Aflao, one of the nearest towns to the Togo boarder who visits only at weekends while his mother is a trader in the Ho Central Market who sells spices.

On a hot afternoon of June 10, 2009 at about 12:17pm when I was making my normal rounds to get some story sent to the newspaper folks, I spotted a young youth in a white singlet and the normal brown shorts worn by all Ghanaian school kids. I saw him head towards the garbage site. Curiosity crept through me that I was forced to follow up. Before I could check that my 1967 Olympus Camera was around my Corduroy trousers, I saw this youth disappear. “No”, I said to myself and walked down the site.. From about a distance of 15 metres, I spotted Naza down there in the huge garbage gutter that housed the town's filth. I gave a good step when I slipped on something. Oh my God! Not this time again, I just slipped off a black polythene bag that exposed something that is definable as human excreta. “oh my word”, I stepped aside with extra care when Naza heard me up there from the inside of the gutter where he was. He traded fear at my sight, but I pulled a broad smile at him like a crescent moon. But he kept a little stern till I drew closer. He had a white paint container and a “Ricemaster's Choice” bag supporting his two legs respectively. “What must he be looking for here at this time that his colleagues were geared up in the classroom solving some tests, perhaps?”, I soliloquy. Woefully dramatic, he was wearing a bare-foot. I looked around him. I see broken bottles, used razor blades, some excreta and a couple of rusted metals, stuck in the ground from where he stood.

I got Naza locked in a dialogue for about 15 minutes. He tells me that, he preys for scraps at the garbage site and so many other places where he sends them to the 'big guys' for sale. He does this every Wednesday and week day which falls on a market day in Ho when his mum goes to sell up in the market. He also gathers the scraps very Sunday where he runs from church to go work. Not so bad on the Sundays perhaps, he tells me because, the Bible says, “he who does not work should not eat”. He couldn't give me the exact quote from the Bible where he picked that. With a careful look into the knapsack and the container he was using to work, I see rusted metals from spoons, blades, hoes among others. I ask him how much he charges for the scraps and he tells me that, he gets a 10 Ghana Pesewa (GH¢0.10p) per kilo, when weighed. I asked him how many cuts he could make in a day and Naza tells me he makes GH¢1.00 in a day. That means he could make 10 kilos anytime he goes for “Part Time”.

I ask Naza why he has decided to come work instead of stay in the classroom with his colleagues and he answers that, he needs to work and get some money to go play Computer game and also buy something for himself. Naza says he uses money he gets to buy food, some clothes and the rest for his pocket when the money given him by his parents isn't enough to get him through classes till 4:00pm (16:00hrs GMT) when school closes. He might have a g ood point there, especially with the torn white singlet he's wearing.

He keeps a barefoot down there in the filthy fields. I question why he was there on barefoot and he says he can't use his school shoes for the job since that is the only one he's got at the moment. And, the slipper which he uses to go on the digging spree has got broken down so he had no option than to throng the place bare-footed. “Part Time” seems to be saving Naza's parents some profit since their son, at the age of 11 can work and get some things done for himself. It also explains that, the profits his parents earn are very little that he gets enough money for school. He needs to eat before stay focused in the classroom. Naza, according to him says, his mother frowns on him digging garbage sites for scraps but he still can't stay out of it when his peers go on the hunting galore for scraps. This indirectly means that, Naza's parents are not in favour of what he does but peer influence has engulfed Naza's brain that he would go any length to escape school and go dig for scraps, with the bare hands. I asked Naza to pack up the scraps and gave him GH¢1.00, not enough though but to go get some slippers before get to work at the garbage site. I wish I had enough money on me to buy him a pair of boots but the last money I had on me was GH¢1.05p. I kept GH¢0.5p for myself so that I could, at least buy one sachet water to clean my Lacoste canvas I bought in Togo 2 years ago because they had been painted in human excreta.

After giving that GH¢1.00 to Naza, I saw him give a little smile that revealed a little crack on his lips. I stood still stunned thinking about the entire drama. I kept soliloquizing within myself how he works down here in this g arbage site, with no tool or equipment; and for how long has he been doing this? I still kept asking the questions myself down there in the garbage site, and I have forgotten about the entire stench that almost got me collapsed at first. I kept asking the questions myself again and again. I ask myself, “are the teachers not there to keep an eye on them? If they are, are they motivated enough to teach the kids well enough, in this regard, cleanliness? I don't mean to insult the integrity of the teachers. Another issue too is that, parents hire big lawyers and policemen to come arrest teachers and take them to court for molesting their kids, should any teacher try to punish a child for wrong doing. Isn't it adorable how an 11-year-old boy craves for job in Ghana? It sounds good to the ear but it tastes sour for the eyes to see young and energetic 11-year-old boy, Prince Naza, throng garbage sites with the entire world's filth digging for scraps on bare-foot? Won't it also mean that his parents' jobs make them have little or no time for their wards, and in this case, Naza's father who only visits on weekends? There are more questions to be answered about all these. Only God knows how many kids across the country's slums in Ghana are doing the same. And, if about 1 child, from each region in Ghana is doing this during school hours, how is the country's future going to be, now that many Ghanaian youths have taken interest in getting rich quickly through any means? Is somebody watching these kids? Do you have one of them in your area or is the one you saw around your community worse than Naza?”

Before I could finish asking all these questions, I see Naza creep his bare-foot through the grown patches of grass on the football park , which was once a playground for children of the community. I followed up Naza to where ho normally sells his scraps to middle-men but, the middlemen had also gone to hunt for scraps. Naza pulled a frail face. Upon the GH¢1.00, he still needed money badly. I stood there waith Naza for about 45 minutes.

Still, there was no sight of the middle-men who buy the scraps from Naza. He calls them “Abotsi”, a common give into all foreign from Niger, Benin and Mali. I took advantage of the time to take a couple of pictures, of some of the scraps the “Abotsi” guys had bought from some of the kids and other people. I took about 5 shots and was about to take good picture. This time, a shot of the designed small wheelbarrow. After that shot, I turned my back only to notice that, Naza had bolted away. Perhaps he might have noticed that I was a Journalist with all the camera, batteries and the 2 cell phones I was having with me that rang almost every 5 minutes asking me whether I had finished filing a report for publication.

Naza had run away, I can't get enough information from him again. No wonder we all now run away from school too, perhaps due to the cumbersome nature of our education system here in Ghana. Let's get our educational system transformed to favour our generation and beyond. Governmet of Ghana should start working fast at this to curtail issues before it gets off-hand, especially when kids as young as 5 years are pushed into this inhumane venture. Does the educational system possibly need a complete overhaul?

Story by: ELORM BEENIE KODZO
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