Prevention of Child Labour and Trafficking
The prevention of Child Labour and Trafficking has been a key focus of the Cheerful Hearts Foundation since its inception in 2009. Child Labour and Trafficking is a widespread problem across Ghana, where children are frequently taken away from education and forced into extremely hazardous working environments. The Cheerful Hearts Foundation works closely with schools in 3 main communities across the Central Region of Ghana, namely Nyanyano, Fetteh and Senya.
As a volunteer on this programme you will be required to visit schools across the communities to deliver talks to their students about the importance of education, the negative impacts of child labour, and the laws and rights that exist to protect them as children. You may also be required to interview children who have been victims of child trafficking to understand the experiences they have been through and assess how Cheerful Hearts can help them in the future. You could occasionally be asked to conduct interviews with the traffickers or individuals who have forced children into child labour. In working closely with the communities that we serve, CHF also runs the Sponsorship program for rescued children to attend school instead of working. Volunteers will assist in maintaining and monitoring the sponsored children register, including profiles to be used to asses attendance, as well as academic/social progress. You may also be asked to provide one-on-one tutoring to our sponsored students who are particularly behind in school. The tutoring program helps the children to get the personal help and guidance they need to succeed in their education. This after school class provides a safe place where the children can be helped with homework or discuss problems of their own with our staff and volunteers. As a Cheerful Hearts volunteer you will also be expected to engage in research projects to establish ways CHF can attract new partners to collaborate with and to propose innovative ideas to increase investment. You may also be required to work on other initatives that CHF has developed alongside the Child Labour and Trafficking program, such as the Women’s Entrenpreneurship and Learning Development (WELD) and the Nyanyano School’s Soccer League programs.
All Cheerful Hearts volunteers will also attend the STAR Club (Student Tutoring and Reading Club) every Monday and Wednesday after school at which students at all levels from Grades 4, 5 and 6 come to after school to develop their reading and writing abilities. To learn more about the STAR Club, you can watch the video produced by our previous volunteers on the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_Wc7Vu3KrY
If you wish to apply to volunteer on this programme or have any further questions for us, we can’t wait to hear from you!