KUMASI, Ghana — Asana Iyakana, 13, ran away from a
woman she said was exploiting her, making her sell water every day without pay.
Asana ended up living on the streets.
She said she and a friend went to a drop-in center of the
church-run Street Children Project in Kumasi, a city of
more than 2 million people about 150 miles northwest of the capital, Accra.
At the drop-in center, she met Sister Olivia Umoh, a member
of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, who "told us that she
could help us but had a fear that the woman who has been maltreating me will
not allow us to do so."
"The positive and encouraging words from Sister Olivia
made me decide to go to the St. Louise Vocational Training Centre of
the Street Children Project with Sister Olivia, so that I
will be free from abuse and exploitation," Asana said.
The decision changed her life, she said. She has caught up
to learning at a third-grade level. "I am very happy because now I can
read and write, a right I was denied when living with the woman who exploited
me," she said. "There are many children like me on
the street who are suffering every day and going through the same
problems like mine.” She said she would encourage them to "stay safe and
enjoy their child rights" by becoming involved in
the Street Children Project.
Sister Umoh, director of the project, said, "These
services have helped change the lives and fortunes of
many street connected children by giving them hope for a
brighter future and a dignified life."
"The lives of over 10,000 children have
already been transformed from our little efforts ... while a good number of
them benefited directly, others benefited from one-off assistance we gave
them."
Officials estimate about 60,000 children live on
the streets of Ghana; about 20,000 are on the streets of the Ashanti
region, of which Kumasi is the capital. In 2005, the Archdiocese of Kumasi
launched The Street Children Project. The vocational training
center is one of its projects.
Sister Umoh said children on
the street of Kumasi generally migrate from very poor rural
communities in Ghana, particularly villages in the northern part of Ghana.
"Most of these children are from very poor
families where parents continue to procreate without having the means to
provide for their offspring," she said. "Confronted with so
many children to care and provide for, these parents encourage and,
in some cases, force their children to Kumasi to work and earn some
income for themselves and their families."
However, she noted that on arrival in Kumasi, they face
different types of problems, including exposure to dangers and abuses of
various types. Often they are forced to perform tasks beyond their ages and
capacities.
"They live rough and are exposed to antisocial/criminal
acts such as drugs, alcohol, commercial sex work, pilfering, fighting,"
she said. "Children in street situations with no access to
education or enterprise training are likely to grow up in poverty and give
birth to children on the street."
She said there were "second- and
third-generation street children; children of street mothers
who are worse off because they never experienced growing up in a regular
family/home setting."