I hope you all have had a wonderful Labor Day weekend! I wanted to share a special post today to make you aware of an amazing cause. Chris and Stacy Field are friends of ours from college at ACU. Since graduating from college Chris and Stacy have founded Mercy Project to help rescue child slaves in Ghana. It is an amazing organization and I hope after reading this post you will head over to their site and learn more about what they are doing and ways that you can get involved!! Thanks so much for taking the time to read this post and watch the short video! I know it means a lot to Chris and Stacy and means even more to the young children in Africa whose lives are being forever changed because of Mercy Project!
There’s an estimated
7,000 children who work in the Ghana fishing industry. Some of these children are as young as 5 and 6 years old. All of these children are slaves.
–Mercy Project
Today many in our country
will take a day off from our jobs to celebrate the social and economic
achievements of American workers.
No matter if we’re celebrating at home or at the beach, we’re entering
into a tradition that has largely been shaped by Labor Unions - organizations
that are dedicated to protecting workers’ interests and improving their wages,
hours, and working conditions.
Today as we lounge around or hang out with friends and family, we’re not
only celebrating hard work, we’re honoring fair, ethical working practices and
the laws that prevent discrimination, abuse, and child labor in our
country. Without these laws in
place (and enforced), the most vulnerable members of society suffer. Who are the most vulnerable? Children.
Today as we’re celebrating
the systems in our own country that strive to prevent injustices like child
trafficking and child labor, we’re mindful of the many child slaves around the
world who are unprotected and the organizations, like Mercy Project, who are
working to free them.
As a mother, it’s
difficult for me to imagine my children working 14 hours a day, 7 days a
week. I’m unable to wrap my brain
around the thought of my children engaged in long, hard days of physical labor,
eating one meal a day, and then falling asleep at night on a dirt floor filled
with other slave children. Yet
this is the daily reality for kids who have been trafficked into the fishing
industry in Ghana, Africa. As with
much of Africa, there is a great deal of poverty in Ghana. Unfortunately, this
leaves many mothers in an unimaginable position: sell their children to someone
who can take better care of them or watch them starve to death. Most of the
mothers are told their children will be given food, housing, and an education.
Instead, the kids are often taken to Lake Volta where they become child slaves
and their mothers never see them again.
Thankfully, Mercy Project is working to break the cycles of trafficking
around Lake Volta by providing alternate, more efficient, sustainable, fishing
methods for villagers – ultimately eliminating the need for child slaves. Because of the work Mercy Project is
doing in Ghana, the first group of children will be freed this month from Lake
Volta.
We invite you to watch this moving, 10 minute documentary about the issues surrounding child labor and trafficking in Ghana and most importantly the hope Mercy Project is bringing to children and entire communities in Africa. Mercy Project is the only NGO working on Lake Volta addressing the injustice of child labor and child trafficking at its root - by strengthening the Ghanaian economy and eliminating the structures that cause the demand for trafficked children.
Whether
these ideas of child labor, child trafficking, and modern-day slavery are new
to you or you’re aware of these injustices, but need to hear some good news
every once in awhile, we invite you to become a part of what Mercy Project is
doing in Ghana. When Mercy Project
frees their first group of children this month, we can all celebrate together.
Learn
more and get involved by –
•
Watching Mercy Project’s short documentary (the video above).
Although
child trafficking, child labor, and the unstable economies that result in these
injustices are a tragedy, we’re grateful for what Mercy Project is doing to
protect the vulnerable and for allowing us to be a part of this story. While we’re commemorating labor
laws and ethical work in our own country today, we invite you to follow along
on this journey with Mercy Project to protect and free children in Ghana.
1 comment:
Holly, thank you. i love your heart for others and for those who are not able to help themselves, but are waiting for those who can help... those the Lord calls to reach out with His Love and His provision.
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