Challenging Heights has announced the rescue of 25 trafficked children, aged between six and fourteen years, from forced labour on Lake Volta in a weekend operation conducted in collaboration with the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of the Ghana Police Service and the Department of Social Welfare.
The rescued children comprise 18 boys and seven girls. According to a press release issued by the organisation, the higher number of boys rescued is consistent with a pattern in fishing-related child labour and trafficking on the lake, where children are taken from their families, denied education and subjected to hazardous work.
All 25 children have been moved to the Challenging Heights Recovery Centre, where they are receiving medical care, psychosocial support and full recovery.
The rescue, which took place over the weekend, involved children from several communities stretching from the Bono East and Northern Regions.
The announcement comes on National Children’s Day, with this year’s theme, “Amplifying Children’s Voices on Abuse in Ghana: Promoting Child Protection, Participation, and Advocacy,” highlighting the reality that millions of children face abuse, exploitation and neglect in silence.
In Ghana, an estimated 3.4 million children experience physical or emotional abuse, while nearly one in five children aged 5–17 is engaged in child labour.
According to the Global Slavery Index, roughly 50 million people are trapped in modern slavery globally, with about one in four victims being a child. Annual profits from forced labour amount to $235 billion, according to ILO reports.
Approximately 20,000 children are trafficked or engaged in forced child labour in the fishing industry on Lake Volta. Available data indicates that almost 90 per cent of children working on the lake suffer from physical, emotional or verbal abuse.
On this National Children’s Day, Challenging Heights has called for immediate, decisive action, urging the Government of Ghana to adequately resource child protection and anti-trafficking institutions, including the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit and the Department of Social Welfare, to ensure timely investigation, rescue, care and prosecution.
The organisation also called on law enforcement and the justice system to ensure that those who traffic, abuse and exploit children face the consequences under Ghanaian law.
For more than two decades, Challenging Heights has worked to rescue nearly three thousand children and young people from trafficking and exploitation, support survivors through recovery, education and reintegration, and strengthen families and communities to prevent exploitation before it happens.
In the first half of 2026 alone, Challenging Heights and its partners supported the rescue of 144 victims of trafficking and modern slavery.
