Action-aid Ghana, a Non-governmental Organisation, has called on stakeholders to collaborate effectively towards eradicating modern slavery from the society.
It said issues of modern slavery had become rampant in the society and become a norm since the victims and the predators alike were not aware it is slavery.
Madam Terence Tienaah, the Upper West
Terence Tienaah, Regional Manager of Action Aid Ghana.
Regional Manager of Action Aid Ghana, made the call in Wa at the Weekend during a capacity building workshop for journalists and media practitioners in the Upper West region.
Representatives from the Department of Children and the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) among others also attended the workshop.
The workshop was under the “Combating Modern Slavery in Ghana” project being implemented by the ActionAid Ghana with funding support from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) from 2020 to 2023.
Madam Tienaah explained that the media in particular had a role in fighting to eradicate modern slavery from the society.
This, she said, could be done through public sensitization and education on the menace and exposing its practice in society.
She said modern slavery had become a ritual in the society hence the need for strong stakeholder collaboration to nib the practice in the bud.
“It is now no longer someone coming to enslave us, we are now enslaving ourselves. People are being enslaved on Facebook, on WhatsApp, on Instagram, everywhere unknowingly.
”The chains cannot be seen anymore, the chains are now seen as normal in our society”, Madam Tienaah said.
Mr Jeremiah Afako, the training facilitator, said available data indicated that about 40 million people were enslaved globally, with about 21 million in forced labor, 15 million in forced marriage, and 4 million in sexual exploitation.
Mr Afako, who was also the the Upper West Regional Manager of the Ghana Red Cross Society, added that out of the figure, 71 per cent were women while 25 per cent were children, with 23 per cent were in Africa.
Mr James Kuusaana Donkor, a Broadcast Journalist, and Managing partner at Info Radio, took the participants at the workshop through the code of ethics of the journalism profession.
A cross-section of media practitioners at the event.
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