Hazardous child labour

WARNING: Again, this page contains photographs that may be disturbing to some readers. Not the easiest photographs to look at, especially if you cannot stomach open wounds. These are raw and point-blank photographs of youth poverty and a tragedy that is slowly unfolding — a horror of life in a below the breadline community. All the young people on this page were born in the 21st century, and they are spending their youth outdoors — in a cold, harsh urban environment. Enduring multiple deprivations and hardships, they have sworn to survive by all means. Youth Poverty in Ghana Children engaged in hazardous in Accra, Ghana's capital city. From top left: Ayitey, 14, Ankrah, 14, Frimpong, 12, Tanko, 11, Mustafa, 13. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka Chasant The youth bear the greatest burden of poverty in Ghana. Lacking economic resources, a lot of young people in Ghana have withdrawn from social and civic life — to the fringes, where they engage in hazardous work. The gerontocratic culture in which they live stifles and excludes them from critical areas of decision making and the development process. According to Ghana's 2020 Multidimensional Poverty Index, some members of the demographic cohorts (Generation Z & Alpha) on this page — aged 0-14 years — face the worst deprivations, including in areas of education, health, and living standards. More than half of Ghana's population was born after 1995. Ghana's Generation Z: What is Happening to Them? The photographs below capture the daily grind of youth poverty in Ghana. I take no pleasure in displaying them. In fact, they have kept me up many nights. My hope is that someone with a much stronger voice sees this and manages to push the Government of Ghana to move in to help these children. Agbogbloshie: A 13 years old uses a rock to break apart old cathode-ray tube TVs for the iron materials inside. Copyright © 2019 Muntaka Chasant Have you ever come across the photograph above in your research concerning Agbogbloshie? That's Benjamin Duodu — 14 years old now. I grabbed the scene above in September 2019. Benjamin is engaged in hazardous child labour. He spends his days cannibalizing from e-waste at Agbogbloshie in Accra — an area once listed alongside Chernobly, the 1986 nuclear accident site in Ukraine. Agbogbloshie is renowned for its heavy metals pollution. I'm still in shock after a late September 2020 episode concerning Benjamin. Let's rewind to a couple of weeks before the September 2020 incident. Below, I stopped by to check up on the boys on August 17, 2020, as I do a few times every month: Child labour in Ghana: Benjamin Duodo, 14 years old, is engaged in hazardous child labour at Agbogbloshie, Ghana. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka ChasantYouth poverty image: Children engaged in hazardous child labour in Accra, Ghana. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka Chasant Now to the incident. While in the area on September 23rd, I found Benjamin sleeping and shaking uncontrollably on a scrap refrigerator. The boys immediately told me he had been cut very badly by scrap metal. He woke up to show me his injured fingers wrapped in bandages. Had a mobile phone with me, so I grabbed this quick shot of him looking worn out: Benjamin Duodu, 14 years old, in pain after being cut by scrap metal. Agbogbloshie, Ghana. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka Chasant Didn't look good to me, so gave out money to have him sent to a nearby clinic to have it checked although he told me it was examined the day before. Shocked by this, I had people keep an eye on him throughout the next couple of days. I visited on September 28 to see how Benjamin was healing. There, Benjamin had removed the bandages: Child labour: 14-year-old child labourer Benjamin Duodu in Accra, Ghana's capital city. More than 31 million children in Africa are in hazardous child labour, the ILO estimates show. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka ChasantChild labour in Ghana: Benjamin Duodu, 14 years old, cut very badly by scrap metal at Agbogbloshie, Ghana. Benjamin and a dozen of other children are engaged in hazardous child labour at Agbogbloshie. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka ChasantHazardous child labour in Ghana: 14-year-old Benjamin Duodu cut by scrap metal at Agbogbloshie, Ghana. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka Chasant In fact, this did not slow down Benjamin as he went on to scavenge for scraps: Benjamin Duodu, 14 years old, and Joseph Akwah, 17, sort scavenged scraps at Agbogbloshie, Accra, Ghana. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka Chasant That's Benjamin and the 17-year-old Joseph Akwah. This is what they got when I checked back a few hours later: The assorted items Duodu and Akwah got. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka ChasantRecovered scrap metals and electrical wires at Agbogbloshie. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka Chasant Benjamin still healing his middle knuckles, Joseph went to work. He was injured while manually dismantling a computer keyboard to recover the metal inside: A 17 years old E-waste worker manually dismantles a computer keyboard for scrap metal at Agbogbloshie, Ghana. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka ChasantChild labour and e-waste: Joseph Akwah, 17 years, cut as he manually dismantles a scrap computer keyboard for metal. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka ChasantUrban poor adolescent boy manually dismantles a computer keyboard at Agbogbloshie in Accra, Ghana. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka ChasantA 17-year-old Ghanaian adolescent boy engaged in hazardous child labour manually dismantles a computer keyboard for scrap metal at Agbogbloshie. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka ChasantJoseph Akwah, 17 years old, had just recovered metal from a scrap computer keyboard. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka ChasantChild labour at Agbogbloshie: Benjamin Duodu, 14 years, and Joseph Akwah, 17, at Agbogbloshie cannibalizing from discarded e-waste. Despite being badly cut by metal, Duodo still used his fingers to sift through the soil to retrieve metals. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka Chasant These are two photos of Joseph working a few months back: Informal CRT TV recycling: Man is using a rock to break apart an old CRT TV to reclaim the iron materials inside at Agbogbloshie, Ghana. © 2020 Muntaka ChasantA 17-year-old adolescent boy had just reclaimed iron materials from an old CRT TV at Agbogbloshie, Ghana. © 2020 Muntaka Chasant Update: October 20, 2020: I visited to check up on the boys on October 19, 2020. A quick update on Benjamin incase you are concerned (second from left below): Agbogbloshie child labour: left to right: Osei, 15 years old, Duodu, 14, Akwah, 17, and Debrah, 15. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka ChasantBenjamin Duodu healing from his wounds. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka Chasant I have been documenting this situation for some time now. If this is your first time, the page in the link below explains this situation with photographs: Related: Urban Outcasts: Children of Agbogbloshie Below is a quick look at some of the child labourer that were present during my visit on September 28, 2020. Ibrahim Tanko, 11 years old E-waste Miner Youth poverty in Africa: 11-year-old child labourer Ibrahim Tanko at Agbogbloshie, Ghana. More than 300 million children in Africa will be living in extreme poverty by 2030. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka Chasant I went in around 6:30 AM on September 28. A lot of them, including the 11-year-old Tanko, sleep near the scrapyard. Some on cardboard sheets in the open. Tanko lives on his own and survives through his wits on the streets. He currently sleeps on a heap of second-hand clothes at June 4th (Kantamanto) — near Agbogbloshie. "I'm bitten by mosquitos every day," Tanko said when I asked about his accommodation situation. I found Tanko gambling that early in an area called 'ghetto'. Tanko frequently pulled out reds — GH₵1.00 banknotes — from his fanny pack. Child gambling: 11-year-old Ibrahim Tanko and other children engaged in hazardous child labour gambling around 7 AM. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka Chasant An interesting makeshift 'roulette'. Tanko and the others came out to have breakfast after losing money at the table: Child labour in Ghana: 11-year-old Tanko is having breakfast before going out to use his bare hands to sift through the soil to recover scrap metals — in an area renowned for its heavy metals pollution. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka Chasant Powdered milk, sugar, and warm water served in a disposable plastic cup. Bought from this wheelbarrow cart: Urban poor buy breakfast and other snacks from this wheelbarrow cart around the Agbogbloshie scrapyard. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka Chasant In fact, Tanko's mother lives just nearby. "My mother has recently given birth and lives with her boyfriend near the Kokomba market," Said Tanko, "Tanko's mother's boyfriend hit Tanko hard in the head the last time he entered their room," Ayitey, one of the child labourers below, told me when I asked why Tanko doesn't go home. Tanko himself told me that he won't be going back home. He uses his bare hands and stones to dismantle e-waste to recover the precious metals inside. He also handpicks small pieces of metals in the soil around the area. Elaborating on his dreams, Tanko said: "I would like to go to the USA to play football (soccer)." When I asked why not stay and play it in Ghana, he added in Twi, a local dialect: "they don't play it very well in Ghana." "Well…Ghana is more of a soccer country than the USA," I insisted. "I still want to go to the USA. Life in Ghana is too tough!" To hear an 11-year-old explain the realities of living out in the open and handpicking metals from an area once listed alongside a place such as Dzerzhinsk, the Soviet-era chemical weapons manufacturing city, left me shattered. Ibrahim Tanko is an 11 years old boy engaged in child labour on the fringes of Agbogbloshie, Ghana. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka ChasantChild poverty in Africa:' 11-year-old Ibrahim Tanko is engaged in hazardous child labour in Accra, Ghana. He uses his bare hands and stones to dismantle e-waste. An estimated 2 in and every 5 children in African will be living in extreme poverty by 2030, according to ODI. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka Chasant Here are a few of Tanko back in May: Child poverty in Ghana: 11-year-old Ibrahim uses a rock to break apart an old CRT TV to reclaim the precious metals inside at Agbogbloshie, Ghana. Nearly 2 million children in Ghana aged 5 - 17 years are in child labour. © 2020 Muntaka ChasantE-waste recycling: Ibrahim, 11 years old, is about to smash an old computer monitor against a rock to recover the shadow mask and other iron materials inside at Agbogbloshie, Ghana. Ibrahim is frequently cut by broken glass from CRT TVs and monitors. He is also exposed to hazardous substances such as lead and cadmium. © 2020 Muntaka Chasant Update: October 20, 2020: Visited to check up on them on October 19th and found that Tanko was cut by a magnet attached to a subwoofer he was using to recover metals in the soil around Agbogbloshie: Children engaged in hazardous child labour. Agbogbloshie, Ghana. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka ChasantAn 11-year-old boy badly cut by a magnet attached to an old school subwoofer he was using to attract small metals in the soil. Agbogbloshie, Ghana. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka ChasantIbrahim Tanko, 11, is engaged in hazardous child labour at Agbogbloshie. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka Chasant Tanko was shirtless when I first saw him on the morning of October 19, 2020. He told me he did not have a shirt when I asked where his top was. When I asked how much it will cost to get him a new shirt, he responded: "GH₵1.00 " He immediately turned around and picked up the second-hand t-shirt he wears in the photos above. I had him and Ankrah sent to a nearby clinic. Kweku Frimpong, 12 years old 12-year-old Kweku Natus Frimpong is engaged in hazardous child labour at Agbogbloshie, Ghana. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka Chasant In case you are curious about what was going on behind Natus: Agbogbloshie: Man about to pull up to unload a bunch of scrap tires. Scrap workers at Agbogbloshie burn scrap tires in the open for steel wires. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka ChasantAgbogbloshie September 2020: Scrap tires about to be unloaded and incinerated in the open for steel wires. This is a major source of air pollution in Accra, Ghana's capital city. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka Chasant The men had been burning waste cables to recover copper materials. They also openly incinerate scrap tires for steel wires. Natus and some of the others when I visited on October 19, 2020: Children engaged in child labour having fun. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka Chasant Here are a few of Natus from the past: Agbogbloshie image: Kweku Frimpong, 12 years old, uses a stone to break apart an old CRT TV for the iron materials inside at Agbogbloshie, Ghana. © 2020 Muntaka ChasantChild Labour: Kweku Frimpong, 12 years old, smile and display shadow masks he had just reclaimed from old CRT TVs at Agbogbloshie, Ghana. © 2020 Muntaka Chasant 15-year-old Emmanuel Osei Child labour portrait: Osei, 15 years old, is engaged in hazardous child labour on the margins of Accra, Ghana's capital city. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka Chasant A few from the past: Child labour in Africa: Osei (right), 15 years old, is about to smash an old CRT TV against a rock to recover the iron materials inside at Agbogbloshie, Ghana. Fourteen-year-old Ankrah in a lime green t-shirt with “I can do it!” on the front is waiting for his turn. More than 70 million children in Africa are estimated to be in child labour. © 2020 Muntaka ChasantChild labour: Emmanuel Osei, 15 years old, threw an old CRT TV in the air, hoping for it to land on a nearby rock. If this technique works, both the panel and the lead-filled funnel glass will instantly shatter into pieces, revealing the shadow mask and other materials. The reclaimed precious metals are weighed and sold — for around $0.15 per kilo in May 2020. Broken glasses during this process frequently cut Osei and the other children engaged in this hazardous work. They are also exposed to toxic substances, including lead and cadmium. © 2020 Muntaka ChasantHazardous child labour at Agbogbloshie: A young person (15 years old) had just smashed an old CRT TV against a rock with splinters of glass flying around, to reclaim the iron materials inside. Not only does the broken glass cut the children engaged in this hazardous work, but they are also exposed to heavy metals such as cadmium, lead, and barium. About 21% of children in Ghana are in child labour, with around 14% engaged in hazardous work. © 2020 Muntaka ChasantChild labour in Africa: Osei, 15 years old, is engaged in hazardous child labour on the margins of Agbogbloshie, Ghana. He is separating nails, crown cork bottle caps, and other small metals from dirt before selling them for around $0.15 per kilo at Agbogbloshie. More than 72 million children in Africa are estimated to be in child labour, with 31.5 million, more than Ghana’s population, engaged in hazardous work. © 2020 Muntaka ChasantChild labour image: A 15-year-old boy engaged in hazardous child labour is using his bare hands to dig into a mixture of dirt and small metals, including rusty nails. He is sifting dirt from the metals before selling them at $0.15 per kilo at Agbogbloshie, Ghana. An estimated 73 million children worldwide aged 5-17 works are in dangerous working conditions, according to ILO statistics. © 2020 Muntaka Chasant Junior Adama, 13 years old 13-year-old Junior Adama is engaged in hazardous child labour in Accra, Ghana. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka Chasant13-year-old child labourer badly cut by broken CRT glass. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka Chasant Read the link above to learn more about Junior Adama. Here are a few from the past: Child labour: Adama is 13 years old and engaged in hazardous child labour at Agbogbloshie, Ghana. © 2020 Muntaka ChasantHazardous child labour: 13-year-old Adama was engaged in hazardous child labour at Agbogbloshie, Ghana. He used his bare hands to pick scrap metals deposited in the soil in an area known for its heavy metals pollution. © 2020 Muntaka ChasantAdama, 13 years old, and Malik, 14, at Agbogbloshie, Ghana. © 2020 Muntaka Chasant The link again: Urban Outcasts: Children of Agbogbloshie Steven Ayitey, 14 Youth poverty in Ghana: Steven Ayitey, 14 years old, is a child labourer in Accra. He engages in all sorts of hazardous work. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka Chasant Ali Fuhaadh, 16 16-year-old child labourer Ali Fuhaadh smile for the camera. Agbogbloshie, Accra, Ghana. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka Chasant Kwadjo Esien, 14 Kwadjo Esien, 14 years old, is engaged in hazardous child labour on the fringes of Accra, Ghana's capital city. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka Chasant Kwadjo slipped and fell on broken CRT glass while dismantling e-waste back in September. He appeared to be healing: Agbogbloshie child labour: Kwadjo Esien, 14 years, is engaged in hazardous child labour at Agbogbloshie in Accra, Ghana. He was cut by broken CRT glass in early September 2020. Copyright © 2020 Muntaka Chasant Mustafa Zuberu, 13, and Bright Ankrah, 14 Mustafa Zuberu, 13 years old, and Bright Ankrah, 14, were in the frames when I visited on October 19, 2020. Below are a few of both of them from the past: Child labour in Ghana: Mustafa, 13 years old, is an urban poor engaged in hazardous child labour on the fringes of Abgbogbloshie, Ghana. He’s about to smash an old computer monitor against a rock to recover the shadow mask (iron-nickel alloy material) inside. © 2020 Muntaka ChasantChild labour at Agbogbloshie: Osei, 15 years old, and Mustafa, 13 years, had spent more than an hour using bare hands and stones to reclaim shadow masks and other precious metals from old CRT TVs and computer monitors at Agbogbloshie, Ghana. They are now ready to weigh and sell. © 2020 Muntaka ChasantChild labour: Osei, 15 years old, and Mustafa, 13 years, engaged in hazardous child labour in Ghana smile and display how much they had earned for the morning. They had earlier used their bare hands and stones to break apart old CRT TVs for the iron-nickel alloy materials inside. They sold the precious metals for around $0.15 per kilo at Agbogbloshie, earning them GH₵10 each (around $1.74). They were exposed to heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, and barium. Around 152 million children worldwide are victims of child labour, with 73 million engaged in hazardous work, the ILO statistics show. © 2020 Muntaka ChasantChild labour image: 14-year-old Bright Ankrah (left) is about to smash an old CRT TV against a rock to retrieve the shadow mask and other iron materials inside at Agbogbloshie, Ghana. Osei (right), 15, is shouting at Bright: "be careful I'm here! be careful!!" Roughly around 31.5 million children in Africa are in hazardous child labour, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates. © 2020 Muntaka ChasantCRT TV Shadow Mask: 14-year-old Bright Ankrah with ‘I can do it’ on the front of his t-shirt had just recovered a shadow mask from an old CRT TV at Agbogbloshie, Ghana. He used his bare hands and stones to separate the panel and funnel glass from the precious metals inside the old television set. © 2020 Muntaka Chasant The harsh living conditions in Accra is tough enough — where people fight with each other for basic survival — but this is worse. Are the scenes above a consequence of a corrupt society or simply the nature of the system? The Worst Forms of Child Labour in Ghana Ghana has done very little to tackle the worst forms of child labour, according to the US Department of Labor's 2019 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor in Ghana. Hazardous child labour in Ghana and Ivory Coast's cocoa-growing areas — 43% of children aged 5 and 17 — has gone up from 31% in 2008-09 to 45% in 2018-19 period, according to an October 2020 report from the University of Chicago. Ghana and Ivory Coast produce more than half of the world's cocoa supply, says Fairtrade International. The Washington Post adds that this output illegally relies on the sweat of more than 1 million children — benefiting mainly the world's chocolate companies. To make it worse — children from poor communities are now at a much greater risk of child labour than ever before due to the coronavirus pandemic. Thousands of children are missing out on free school meals. They won't go back to school until early next year. Those who rely on free school meals are now having to come out to engage in hazardous work in order to buy food. Many developing countries, including Ghana, have made little progress in ending poverty. Sorry, but 2030 is not realistic at all. Should we look to the later part of the 21st century? That's a long way out. If things do improve, can we converge back here on December 31, 2100, if we make it, and raise a glass to the past and say: "Wow, what a century!"? Read more about the situation on this page in the links below: Related: Urbanization And Child Labour Related: A child labour scene Related: Child Labour in Photos: Electronic Waste Related: Child Labour in Ghana: Meet 8-Year-Old 'Akufo-Addo' Related: Poverty and Child Labour Copyright © 2020 Muntaka Chasant

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