MUNTAKA CHASANT
PEOPLE & STORIES
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Child Poverty

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat. Mother Teresa Kwaku Michael is a 7-year-old scavenger and urban miner who spends his days cannibalizing from e-waste on the margins of Agbogbloshie, Ghana. Child Poverty Images […]

May 6, 2020

Child Poverty: Smiling Kwadwo Michael is a 7 years old urban poor who lives on the fringes of Agbogbloshie, Ghana. He uses his bare hands and stones to break apart e-waste for the precious metals inside, exposing himself to heavy metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium, and arsenic. Worldwide, 73 million children between 5 and 17 years are in hazardous child labour, according to the ILO. © 2020 Muntaka Chasant

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat. Mother Teresa Kwaku Michael is a 7-year-old scavenger and urban miner who spends his days cannibalizing from e-waste on the margins of Agbogbloshie, Ghana. Child Poverty Images […]

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.

Mother Teresa

Kwaku Michael is a 7-year-old scavenger and urban miner who spends his days cannibalizing from e-waste on the margins of Agbogbloshie, Ghana.

Child Poverty Images

Michael sometimes uses his hands and stones to break apart vintage televisions that are based on a cathode-ray tube for the iron materials inside, exposing himself to dangerous levels of lead.

Child Poverty: Kwadwo Michael is a 7 years old hazardous child labourer who handpicks scrap metals and discarded e-waste components in the soil at Agbogbloshie, an area renowned for its heavy metals contamination. He is exposed to toxic materials such as lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, and chromium from the informal recycling of e-waste around the area. 19 million children below the age of 12 years are in hazardous child labour worldwide, the ILO statistics show. © 2020 Muntaka Chasant
Child Poverty: Engaged in hazardous child labour, 7-year-old boy Kwadwo Michael handpicks scrap metals and discarded e-waste components in the soil at Agbogbloshie, an area renowned for its heavy metals contamination. He is exposed to toxic materials such as lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, and chromium from the informal recycling of e-waste around the area. 19 million children below the age of 12 years are in hazardous child labour worldwide, the ILO statistics show. © 2020 Muntaka Chasant

Exposure to lead is associated with neurocognitive deficits in children, including intellectual impairment, shortened attention span, and even reproductive problems later in life.

Child Poverty: This 7-year-old (Kwadwo Michael ) hazardous child labourer lives on the margins of Agbogbloshie, Ghana. He uses his bare hands to sift through e-waste dumps for scrap metals and valuable electronic components, exposing himself to heavy metals such as arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury. Around 1 in 5 children in Africa (compared to 1 in 25 in Europe & Central Asia) is in child labour, according to the ILO. UNICEF estimates that poor children are twice as likely to die in childhood than their wealthy peers. © 2020 Muntaka Chasant
Child Poverty: This 7-year-old (Kwadwo Michael ) is engaged in hazardous child labour on the margins of Agbogbloshie, Ghana. He uses his bare hands to sift through e-waste dumps for scrap metals and valuable electronic components, exposing himself to heavy metals such as arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury. Around 1 in 5 children in Africa (compared to 1 in 25 in Europe & Central Asia) is in child labour, according to the ILO. UNICEF estimates that millions of the world’s poorest urban children are more likely to die young than their rural peers. © 2020 Muntaka Chasant

The minimum age for hazardous work in Ghana is 18, according to Section 91 of the Children’s Act (560).

Agbogbloshie is renowned for its heavy metals pollution levels. Michael is also exposed to toxic materials such as mercury, arsenic, chromium, nickel, and cadmium from the informal recycling of e-waste around the area.

Michael is exposed to heavy metals such as mercury, lead, arsenic, cadmium, and chromium.

Children in Poverty: Kwadwo Michael, 7 years old, and Kwaku Frimpong, 12 years, are children in poverty who live on the margins of Agbogbloshie, Ghana. They do all sorts of e-waste related works, including using their bare hands and stones to break apart e-waste for the precious metals inside. Worldwide, 62% of all children in hazardous child labour are boys, the ILO statistics show. © 2020 Muntaka Chasant
Children in Poverty: Kwadwo Michael, 7 years old, and Kwaku Frimpong, 12 years, are children in poverty who live on the margins of Agbogbloshie, Ghana. They do all sorts of e-waste related works, including using their bare hands and stones to break apart e-waste for the precious metals inside. Worldwide, 62% of all children in hazardous child labour are boys, the ILO statistics show. © 2020 Muntaka Chasant

Child Poverty: Smiling Kwadwo Michael is a 7 years old urban poor who lives on the fringes of Agbogbloshie, Ghana. He uses his bare hands and stones to break apart e-waste for the precious metals inside, exposing himself to heavy metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium, and arsenic. Worldwide, 73 million children between 5 and 17 years are in hazardous child labour, according to the ILO. © 2020 Muntaka Chasant
Child Poverty: Smiling Kwadwo Michael is a 7 years old urban poor who lives on the fringes of Agbogbloshie, Ghana. He uses his bare hands and stones to break apart e-waste for the precious metals inside, exposing himself to heavy metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium, and arsenic. Worldwide, 73 million children between 5 and 17 years are in hazardous child labour, according to the ILO. © 2020 Muntaka Chasant

I have been documenting this hazardous child labour problem at Agbogbloshie for some time. See the article below for details and more photographs:

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© 2020 Muntaka Chasant

May 6, 2020

14 Min read time

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