$3600
Last October, The New York Times published an article about child slavery in Ghana. It featured a six-year-old boy named Mark Kwado, who had been indentured to a fisherman, and who worked off his parents' debt by paddling a fishing boat on Lake Volta. Other boys interviewed described 100-hour work weeks, and liberal beatings.
A six year old, who in the United States would be in kindergarten, and getting in a boat maybe a couple of times a year while on vacation with his family, is performing hard manual labor for 100 hours a week.
Or he was until last month, when an American couple flew to Ghana, and, working with a local charity, negotiated Mark's release (i.e., paid off the fisherman), and the release of six other young boys as well, for $3600. The boys are now living in an orphanage -- with the consent of their parents, who, if they'd been able to take care of them in the first place wouldn't have sold them to the fisherman -- and going to school.
There's a couple of things about this story that get me. The first is just the sheer admiration I have for this couple, Pam and Randy Cope, who are from a smalltown in Missouri, and who have been making these kind of direct interventions since their own son died suddenly seven years ago. Of course that's a devastating event in any parent's life -- they were able to turn their grief outward and that's amazing.
The second thing that gets me, though, is that it only cost them $3600, plus the cost of going to Ghana (about $2000 roundtrip these days, which is not cheap, but in the realm of possibility for a lot of people). Whereas you and I just read the article, had whatever horrified reaction to it that we had, then turned the page to something else, likely equally horrifying, they said: "let's do something."
I helped start a company in Ghana several years ago, and have spent a lot of time there. The story had perhaps more resonance for me than it did for you on that account. But did I say to myself, hmmm, maybe I could get in contact with my friend Lynda, who runs a foundation in Accra, and she and I could come up with a way to rescue little Mark Kwado and his co-workers, and I could hit up my friends for the money to get it done?
No, I did not.
Thank God for the Copes, who did.
A six year old, who in the United States would be in kindergarten, and getting in a boat maybe a couple of times a year while on vacation with his family, is performing hard manual labor for 100 hours a week.
Or he was until last month, when an American couple flew to Ghana, and, working with a local charity, negotiated Mark's release (i.e., paid off the fisherman), and the release of six other young boys as well, for $3600. The boys are now living in an orphanage -- with the consent of their parents, who, if they'd been able to take care of them in the first place wouldn't have sold them to the fisherman -- and going to school.
There's a couple of things about this story that get me. The first is just the sheer admiration I have for this couple, Pam and Randy Cope, who are from a smalltown in Missouri, and who have been making these kind of direct interventions since their own son died suddenly seven years ago. Of course that's a devastating event in any parent's life -- they were able to turn their grief outward and that's amazing.
The second thing that gets me, though, is that it only cost them $3600, plus the cost of going to Ghana (about $2000 roundtrip these days, which is not cheap, but in the realm of possibility for a lot of people). Whereas you and I just read the article, had whatever horrified reaction to it that we had, then turned the page to something else, likely equally horrifying, they said: "let's do something."
I helped start a company in Ghana several years ago, and have spent a lot of time there. The story had perhaps more resonance for me than it did for you on that account. But did I say to myself, hmmm, maybe I could get in contact with my friend Lynda, who runs a foundation in Accra, and she and I could come up with a way to rescue little Mark Kwado and his co-workers, and I could hit up my friends for the money to get it done?
No, I did not.
Thank God for the Copes, who did.
Labels: ghana
posted by Excellent Walker at 6:05 PM
4 Comments:
I think that this is one of those times when the heroism of the ordinary person can lift us just a little bit further along our ladder. So you didn't fly to Ghana -- that's okay -- and someone did and showed you and me that it's possible and thus, our sense of our own power and potential increases.
It's the most amazing story.
Posterboy saved.
Guilt gone.
Problem solved!
Anonymous comments
Solve everything!
WOW! Well done.
It seems to me that more often than not, anonymous people miss the point.
The point to me was, do something. It doesn't have to be a big something, like the Copes did. But what if it was a big something - even if I only did it once - how much might it mean to the person on the other end?
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