Challenging Heights

James Kofi Annan, the last born of twelve children of his illiterate parents, was trafficked to Ghana’s Lake Volta fishing industry when he was six years old, and he spent seven years there in modern slavery. After escaping, pursuing an education, and building a career as a bank manager, he founded Challenging Heights in 2005 to prevent more children from going through what he had experienced. Later he resigned from his banking career to devote full time in pursuing freedom for enslaved children in Ghana. In the course of this work, James has faced persistent death threats, physical attacks, and smear campaigns.

James served as a board chair of Family for Every Child, a former board member of Survivor Alliance, and a member of Global Fund to End Modern Slavery’s Expert Advisory Council. He is a former commissioner for the Financial Sector Commission on Modern Slavery and Human trafficking.

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Challenging Heights addresses modern slavery in the fishing industry. There are up to 20,000 enslaved children, in the fishing industry on Lake Volta per the ILO’s 2013 Analytical Study on Child Labour in Lake Volta Fishing in Ghana.  This is buttressed also by an International Justice Mission 2016 baseline scoping study report which indicated more than half of 771 children interviewed working on Lake Volta were trafficked and Winneba, where Challenging Heights works, is one of the source communities they hail from.

Challenging Heights’ rescue and recovery project works to restore the dignity of the 20,000 enslaved children by rescuing, rehabilitating, reintegrating, and monitoring them to prevent modern slavery. A holistic approach is adopted to tackle the root causes by training care-givers in livelihood empowerment and advocating to influence policies, laws and practices. The theory of change is to work at the individual, community and system levels.

Challenging Heights is working to stop child trafficking and hazardous child labour in the fishing industry on Lake Volta, largest man-made lake in the world. The International Labour Organisation/International Programme on Elimination of Child Labour (ILO/IPEC) Analytical Study on Child Labour In Lake Volta Fishing in Ghana (August 2013) estimates that there 49,000 Children working on in the fishing industry on Lake Volta, with 20,000 forced to undertake hazardous child labour. In addition, the Global Slavery Index report 2014 estimated that 35.8 million people were living in slavery globally with 193,100 of them living in Ghana. The drivers of modern slavery in terms of child trafficking and hazardous child labour relating to Challenging Heights work are poverty, ignorance, ineffective and inefficient implementation of Ghana child protection laws and policies and parents’ irresponsibility. Using problem-tree and solution-tree approaches, Challenging Heights provides holistic solution to tackling modern slavery by providing livelihood empowerment, livelihood infrastructure (cold store and smoke ovens for fresh fish preservation), and advocacy to influence or change policies, laws and practices. Community sensitisation is done to raise awareness at the local level on the ills of modern slavery and strategies to address it.

Challenging Heights rescue and recovery project works to free and recover enslaved children from modern slavery in the fishing industry on Lake Volta. Challenging Heights rescue team gathers intelligence on the victims through its sensitisation programmes and its Community Child Protection Committees, its community structure. Following the gathering of intelligence, the rescue team works with the Ghana Police to free enslaved victims from their slave-masters in destination communities along Lake Volta. Challenging Heights’ rescue and recovery project activities are comprehensive and cumulative, providing victims with holistic rehabilitation in all areas including physical, health, education, behaviour and trauma-sensitive psychology.  This rehabilitation support starts from the moment each child is rescued and received into our shelter. After a period of about 6-9 months and once they are ready, each child is reintegrated into their community. Challenging Heights then supports each child’s reintegration for two years through a programme of ongoing monitoring, and educational assistance to the children. Challenging Heights combines this with providing livelihoods support for their families and care-givers, including skills training, economic opportunities and microfinance. Challenging Heights also implements advocacy activities to influence policies, practices and laws to better children’s welfare.

Challenging Heights rescue and recovery project serves vulnerable coastal communities being affected by modern slavery. Over 15 years, 1600 vulnerable children, both survivors of modern slavery and at-risk children, including their care-takers, have been empowered to overcome the negative impacts of modern slavery. 

These communities are poverty stricken with the dominant professions being artisanal fishing and farming which is seasonal and yields income at the extreme poverty rate, less than USD1.9 a day. Aside the economic difficulties, inhabitants are faced with inadequate opportunities in terms of government support and infrastructure to improve their livelihood and solve child trafficking and hazardous work.

Challenging Heights being a community based organisation fully understands the needs of these communities through its stakeholders’ engagement over the years to design, implement, monitor and evaluate anti-slavery projects.  The needs assessment   engagements are implemented through the Community Child Protection Committees which consist of community volunteers to come out with community needs through Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis. These needs are made compactible with local, and national development agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. Thus, funds are raised to implement the rescue and recovery, livelihood and advocacy projects to address these needs.          

James Kofi Annan is the founder of Challenging Heights, a community based organisation officially founded on February 7, 2005. James himself being a survivor of slavery on Lake Volta know not only the depth of hazardous child slavery on Lake Volta, but also the causes and how to address these root causes. Upon voluntarily returning from slavery from Lake Volta after 7 years and completing university, he did not naturally forget about his wasted years in slavery on Lake Volta, but decided to prevent other vulnerable children from suffering what he did experience. He started in 2003 by setting up child rights clubs to empower children on their human rights to not only prevent them from trafficking, but protect their colleagues from being trafficked. He then came up with the motto “To whom much is given, much is expected”; therefore the need to set up a grassroots NGO that will bring the change he wants, as he believed that surviving slavery alone was a lot that life had given him. He stopped his work and devoted his full time to his passion of ending child slavery and also ensuring every child has the opportunity to develop his/her potential.

James Kofi Annan wants to free and recover the up to 20,000 enslaved children in the fishing industry on Lake Volta. As a survivor of modern slavery in the fishing industry, I want to use my story of pain, escape, and success to motivate and enlighten my tribes people to prevent families from selling their children into slavery and also bring dignity to the thousands of children still working on the Volta Lake. Never again should any child be forced into such levels of servitude, and I see this as my personal contribution to my community, Winneba development, and neighboring coastal communities to develop their human resources for future development. I have also through the establishment of Challenging Heights brought employment to dozens of youth who are income generating ventures, while others are monthly paid in a high youth unemployment country like Ghana. I want to sustain the employment of these youth, especially survivors who have been recovered and now working as part of the Challenging Heights team.

Challenging Heights has worked over 15 years designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating rescue and recovery projects which have successfully seen over a thousand vulnerable children and their care-takers empowered to overcome modern slavery. Evolving as a grassroot organisation, Challenging Heights’ staff including survivors like myself, and other survivors like Challenging Heights’ Senior Manager for Rescue, Recovery and Community Mobilization, Stephen, who I rescued, have Masters Degrees, and trainings. These years of trainings acquired through national and international workshops, on the job experience have made staff to acquire knowledge, skills and experiences to provide effective and efficient services to clients. An example is the wealth of knowledge and experiences Challenging Heights has received and shared with Family for Every Child whose immediate Board Chair was the founder of Challenging Heights. Being the leading national organisation in the fight against child trafficking, Challenging Heights has formed key partnerships with government and civil society organisations to leverage resources to implement its rescue and recovery projects. With international CSOs partnerships, Challenging Heights was contracted in 2017 to implement the Ghana government Care Reform Initiative project where over 300 reunified children by the Department of Social Welfare were traced, assessed and reported on.  Also, selected social welfare staff of the state were trained in delivering effective and efficient monitoring as well as the standardisation of monitoring tools for child care institutional use. Challenging Heights has been a leading contributor to the development of National Action Plan for the Elimination of Human Trafficking in Ghana.

In 2010 Challenging Heights faced its first series of death threats when it achieved Ghana’s first successful fishing industry child trafficking prosecution. James received not less than 30 death threats a day for over a month. We brought in security experts to train all staff in self-protection. We created a protection plan for the organization. We used the facts of the prosecution to educate the general public on the dangers of child trafficking. Consequently there was nearly 10% increase in the number of community members reporting cases of suspected child trafficking to Challenging Heights, and to the police.

In 2016 Challenging Heights was stopped from conducting a raid on traffickers, and threatened with arrests of its entire staff. This was because a government official felt the planned raid was going to affect his political fortunes. The raid was subsequently suspended, after which we organized two workshops, for government officials. The aim was to build consensus on the need to reduce the incidence of child trafficking. The raid was subsequently and successfully conducted, resulting in the rescue of 41 children. Consequently a permanent check-point has been established by the Police, to check incidence of child trafficking in the community.   

Sankor, a small village where I grew up, used to be one of the hotspot communities in Ghana, where almost every home had been affected by trafficking of children, with over 40% incidence among children. School enrolment was estimated at less than 20%, increasing the vulnerabilities of the children to traffickers. Among the reasons for the low school enrolment was the absence of accessible basic schools. In 2007, I established a school, aimed at enrolling the unenrolled and out-of-school children, to reduce the vulnerability of the children. Over 700 of the estimated 900 children in the community got enrolled in the school, with parents contributing 30% of the cost educating the children. As a result child trafficking in the community is now down to less than 1%, while children’s school enrolment is over 99%. Today other individuals have also established schools in the village. Having used the school as a tool in reducing the incidence of child trafficking, and having inspired the establishment of other schools in the community. In 2016 I transferred the management and ownership of the school to the local community, for me to concentrate on the core mandate of Challenging Heights.

Challenging Heights has improved its rescue and recovery, livelihood and advocacy programmes designing, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. A key success to the rescue and recovery programme is the use of survivors and thrivers to work as advocates. The founder of the organisation and the current Senior Manager for Rescue, Recovery and Community Engagements are survivors whilst the Finance Manager used to be a child rights advocate when the organisation was founded. Moreover, Challenging Heights adopts the investigative model where intelligence on trafficked children are gathered before they are freed from form their traffickers through community negotiation through the traditional authorities and the Ghana Police Services. Challenging Heights is also promoting young women affected by modern slavery to venture into men’s dominated apprenticeships to break gender stereotypes, raise sustainable income to provide the needs of their vulnerable children to escape modern slavery.

INDIVIDUAL LEVEL

We develop direct interventions to increase the resilience of families and improve their overall socio-economic outcomes. Once the families are in a stable economic stance, they are better positioned to protect the child’s basic rights including the rights to education and proper parental care and support. When families are resilient and aware, it is impossible for children to be trafficked or subjected to forced and exploitative labour.

SOCIETAL LEVEL

It is imperative that CH understands a child’s external community dynamics and takes proactive steps to improve it. We therefore engage the child, the family, young people, community members and leaders, and crucial stakeholders to foster community-wide resistance against child trafficking and an environment that is safe and conducive for children to achieve positive life outcomes.

SYSTEMIC LEVEL

All children are situated within a national community whose laws, policies, and cultural norms can influence their success or failure in life. Therefore, in order to achieve holistic and sustainable development outcomes for the child and the family, we need to influence the national development agenda, policies and laws through advocacy. We must also follow up this advocacy by holding the various governments accountable for ensuring these laws are enforced and adequately funded.

In 2020 we will be working with up to 500 children, 2021 will be 600 and 2025 will be 700 children.

Challenging Heights will work within five years towards its aim of a country in which child trafficking is a thing of the past and children’s rights are celebrated. With the mission to prevent child trafficking, reduce child slavery, and promote children’s rights. Challenging Heights will continue its rescue and recovery, livelihoods and advocacy programmes. The rescue and recovery consists of rescue operations on the Volta Lake to free enslaved children, rehabilitate, reintegrate and monitor these rescued and at-risk children by restoring their dignity. Pre-rescue activities on intelligence gathering to identify victims will be conducted as part of the rescue programme. The Alternative Dispute Resolution activities will be implemented to resolve issues on parental irresponsibility and child protection. To address the root causes of modern slavery, livelihood programme for the youth and women will continue, and livelihood infrastructure will be upgraded with an office and security post. More beneficiaries will be trained and provided with equipment, finance, network and skills to build and run their businesses. Complementary training in business and financial management, life skills on sexual reproductive health rights education, computing, and time management will be added to the training. Challenging Heights will continue its advocacy programme to influence, change and enforce laws, policies and practices at the local, national and international levels. Challenging Heights will continue the application for new grants, work with advocates and visitors through the Partners in Development Project to raise fund.

Challenging Heights ten-year strategy has estimates on how much it needs to address modern slavery in the fishing industry on Lake Volta. Out of the ten-year target of USD17, 506,193.00, USD 11,912,478.00 will be needed within five years to achieve a comprehensive programme implementation. This means Challenging Heights needs to raise an average amount of USD2 million, but raised USD 766,541.00 in 2019. Therefore, there is a funding gap of over USD1 million to achieve the organisation’s five-year targets. Technically, Challenging Heights will need to recruit and build the capacity of more staff, rebuild the capacity of existing staff and also resource them with equipment and logistics to successfully implement all thematic work. Legally, government of Ghana needs to provide more resources and the political will to implement existing policies and laws on child protection and trafficking. The key support needed is to increase prosecution of slave-masters and traffickers per the 2019 Trafficking in Persons report by the United States Department of State. Culturally, Challenging Heights is faced with the external family system in Ghana which people exploit to enslave poor children in their families.

Financially, Challenging Heights has expanded its fundraising team by adding a Monitoring and Evaluation Officer to research for new grants and support more grants applications. Also, Challenging Heights will continue to rely on Friends of Challenging Heights in the United States to reach 501(c3) grants in the United States. Moreover, the Partners in Development programme will be improved to bring in more visitors who will transition into partners for fundraising and advocacy. Technically, volunteers and interns are temporarily recruited to beef up staff strength to implement existing work. Staff also benefit from capacity building workshops from partners both nationally and internationally. Example is staff being trained by UNICEF on Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in 2020. Challenging Heights is an active member of the Coalition of NGOs against Child Trafficking which is tirelessly working with the government of Ghana to strengthen child protection policies, laws implementation, monitoring and evaluation. With cultural issue, advocacy and sensitisation campaigns are conducted to educate people on the ills of modern slavery and strategies to address it.

Challenging Heights is currently working with several key partners to implement its programmes to end modern slavery. Challenging Heights is part of a consortium of three organisations implement a three-year (2020 to 2022) European Union project dubbed: “Securing Child Rights in the Fishing Industry in Central Region and along the Volta Lake” with acronym SECRIFICE. Also, Challenging Heights has worked with the United Nations Slavery Fund against Contemporary Forms of Slavery to rehabilitate child survivors of modern slavery at it rehabilitation centre from 2013 to 2020. The UBS Optimum Foundation is funding a three-year livelihood training for young women in men’s dominated apprenticeships from 2019 to 2021 to economically empower them against poverty to prevent modern slavery. Other key partners are the following: Hovde Foundation, Kirk in Actie, Mercy Project and Abolish Slavery Now supporting recovery work and EMpower’s support to livelihood empowerment.

Challenging in Heights’ business model is to provide rescue and recovery, livelihood and advocacy services to clients.  This is done by working with beneficiary communities to gather intelligence on enslaved children which is followed by a rescue operation to free them. Rehabilitation, reintegration and monitoring of the beneficiaries are also provided. Livelihood support in terms of training in technical vocational skills, provision of business, financial management, life skills training, microfinance support and livelihood infrastructure are also done. Beneficiaries are educated through Challenging Heights’ advocacy and sensitisation activities to stop slavery. Beneficiary communities need these services to build resilience against modern slavery in coastal areas and Lake Volta communities in Ghana.

Challenging Heights’ path to long-term financial sustainability is to continuously research and apply for new grants to fund its ten-year strategy. Also, existing funding strategies through the Friends of Challenging Heights, United States will be expanded to raise more funds, and the Partners in Development programme will be improved to bring more visitors who will be turned into funding partners also. Importantly, Challenging Heights is negotiating a MoU with Many Hopes, a new partner to raise up to 50 per cent of Challenging Heights’ funding needs in the long-term per its ten year strategy.

Challenging Heights has received the following grants to implement its projects in 2020 and beyond. The European Union is supporting Challenging Heights with EUR112, 000 from 2020 to 2021 to rescue and recovery victims of modern slavery. The United Nations provided USD20, 000 to fund rehabilitation of survivors at the Challenging Heights’ Hovde House. The UBS Optimum Foundation has provided 450,000 Swiss Franc from 2019 to 2021 to train 300 young women in men’s dominated apprenticeship to fight modern slavery through economic empowerment. The Hovde Foundation has provided USD250, 000.00 in 2020 to renovate the Hovde House and support its operations. The EMpower Foundation has provided USD25, 000 to train young women in shoe making.

With regards to Challenging Heights’ ten-year strategy plan, the organisation needs a grant of USD17,506,193.00 to achieve it aim of preventing child trafficking and slavery in the fishing industry on Lake Volta. For the next five years, a grant of USD11, 912,478.00 is needed to provide services to clients with an annual estimate of USD 2,382,494.4.

Challenging Heights 2020 organisational budget estimates is USD1, 843,106.5. The breakdown is according to the following: Rescue estimates of USD255, 427.10, Recovery estimates of USD488, 026.88, Root Causes estimates of USD559, 448.30, Senya Vocational Training Centre estimate of USD113,941.04, Research and Communication estimates of USD161,931.62 and Central Services estimates of USD264,331.32.

Winning the USD300,000 will help Challenging Heights to implement its rescue and recovery programme per its ten-year strategy. This will directly support the restoration of dignity to up to 400 survivors of modern slavery in the fishing industry on Lake Volta. Also, up to 150,000 people will be sensitized on behavioural change to fight modern slavery through radio programme on Nyce FM. The prize will improve the visibility of Challenging Heights and James Kofi Annan as well as serves as basis to bring in additional funding to close the funding gap within the five years of the ten-year strategy implementation. Challenging Heights and James will be networked with other Elevate Prize Global Heroes and partners to support Challenging Heights’ work and exchange of knowledge, skills and ideas.

Challenging Heights’ ten year strategy needs an annual average income of USD2,000,000 to successfully implement all planned activities.  Therefore, Challenging Heights will be very interested in receiving support in terms of funding and revenue modeling to fund its activities to end modern slavery in the fishing industry.

Challenging Heights wlould like to work with big multilateral donors like USAID, DFID, Eu  for long-term support. Also, international foundations like Comic Relief, will be a very good long-term partner for Challenging Heights. All these orgnisations are needed to provide the necessary monetary support to Challenging Heights.