Khadija in her nursing uniform and Khadija Lamisi during her kayayei days
“After I lost my dad, the onus was on me to take care of my three siblings. At a tender age, I was expected to provide everything for my family. This was a difficult task I could not bear alone,” Khadija Lamisi recounted her struggles.
At just 17, Khadija, who mysteriously lost her father, dreamt of becoming a nurse to help save lives, especially in her small community, Wungu in the Mamprusi West Municipality of the Northeast Region of Ghana.
Her ambition to become a healthcare practitioner mirrored her father’s dream; hoping the daughter could gain admission to a tertiary health institution.
The sudden passing of her father after secondary education shattered Khadija. Grief pushed her to the brink of suicide. She felt compelled to abandon her dreams due to the lack of support from family members in pursuing her career.
As the eldest sibling, she was forced to seek greener pastures in Accra to support her family back home. After consulting with a family friend, Akima, in Accra’s bustling Tema Station market, Khadija was persuaded to join a konkonte-making venture that promised a better life.
Travelling about 417 kilometres from her hometown to Accra for the first time, Khadija held her hope of working harder to save money from the konkonte-making venture to help cater for the family.
However, upon her arrival, things did not go as planned. The konkonte business was no longer viable, and instead, Khadija found herself forced into labour as a kayayei (head porter). For eight months, she carried heavy loads on her head, earning little while sleeping outside at the bus station.
Many of the young girls in this Kayayei business are often lured from the Northern Region to Accra and Kumasi with promises of a good job, only to find themselves deceived and forced into the Kayayie business.
She was forced to work long hours to pay off her transportation debt, carrying heavy loads of goods with minimal pay.
Amidst harsh weather conditions, the psychological stress of her not fulfilling her dad’s dream was unbearable for her. Like Khadija, most of these girls in similar situations endure backbreaking jobs for meager pay.
“It was extremely difficult for me to even save GH¢50 a month. Anytime I tried saving, I would receive a call from home that would demand I send money to address an emergency back home. The popular ones will be about one of my siblings or an aunt needing money for healthcare. I have no option but to send money for their upkeep,” she said.
Breakthrough
In 2022, Khadija was rescued by Engage Now Africa (ENA), a non-governmental organisation with the mandate of preventing human trafficking and hash labour through community prevention training to eradicate human trafficking and modern slavery.
This was done based on a recommendation from a woman named Rapha, after Khadija shared her dream of becoming a nurse.
The head of the Operations and Project Department for Engage Now Africa, Afasi R. Komla, said through the support of ENA and ASEA Advancing Life, Khadija was reintegrated back into her community by enrolling in a training college to pursue her dream career.
He estimated that about 10,000 girls are engaged in Kayayei trading in Accra’s Mokola. “These young ladies mostly from the northern parts of Ghana are deceived with lucrative jobs only to be recruited into Kayayei businesses. Some of these girls are as young as six years and made to do this job,” Komla Afasi said
Upon their background access, Khadija had passed her senior high school examination. “We needed to send her to a nursing training school to pursue her dream job.
“Most often when we rescue these vulnerable groups from the streets, we ask of them their interest. Not all are interested in furthering their education. Some are been enrolled in training schools to sharpen their skills,” Komla Afasi pledged the organisation’s commitment to see to the completion of Khadija’s nursing training education.
“Khadija is not the only person the organisation is helping, this is what we do and we pledge to make sure she fulfills the dream of the late father to be a refined nurse.”
Khadija is currently in level two hundred of her nursing training career, “I’m poised to make a difference with my story. After completion I will embark on other initiatives to help save girls who are suffering as a result of labour exploitation,” she said.
Ghana’s law on labour migration, specifically the human trafficking act of 2005, prohibits and penalises trafficking in person. According to the labour law, traffickers face imprisonment for a minimum of five years with no option of fine. In addition to imprisonment, a trafficker may be liable for fines.
Government Interventions
Despite this law, the country faces challenges in implementing the labour law, resulting in the unending exploitation of the vulnerable from the rural north to the cities.
The issue of eradicating the menace of Kayayei has been a burden on the government as various strategies implemented in that regard have proven futile.
Years back under the erstwhile John Mahama administration, 200 head porters were sponsored with sewing machines, while others underwent vocational training to improve their livelihood as a means of reducing their dominance in the city.
Similarly, under the current New Patriotic Party administration, policies such as the Free Senior High School were mainly implemented to reduce the number of girls, especially between the ages of (16- 20) who are engaged in the kayayei business.
While some successes have been chalked in this regard, the menace still exists; young girls are still been exploited and forced to engage in menial jobs.
This also leads to the implementation of the Kayayei Empowerment Programme to address this menace.
This is to empower all Kayayei(s) across the country with technical and vocational education and training (TVET). The initiative seeks to train 5,000 girls from May to November 2024, evenly distributed as 600 Kayayei (s) per cohort every month.
While the government has implemented measures to reduce the intensive labour migration in the country, some experts are of the view that the programme has the potential to increase the number of young girls in the city in search of a better life.
BY Prince Fiifi Yorke