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About Me
- 50 FOR THE CHILD
- My name is Charles Dawson-Amoah, I’m a British national and I’m 36 years old. I was born in a small town called Cape Coast on the coast, approx. 77.4 miles from Accra, the capital of Ghana. Years ago, my town used to be the capital on “the gold coast” when Ghana was still part of the British colony. After my education, I started working for DHL Ghana, before leaving to join the British Army. In my life i have seen many upsetting things, including child soldiers and children suffering as a consequence of either war, or because of the actions of adults – who I believe should’ve known better. It is at this point, I promised myself I would do something personally to raise this as an issue and to try to do something in my own small way. So, with that in mind, I promised myself that every year I’d do a trek – walking 1,000 miles over 20 days to raise this plight to the politicians and people of the world, that there is still a lot to be done for children across the world.This walk starts on 1st nov -20th nov from Sierra Leone to Ghana.
DOES A DUCK HAVE FEATHERS? (shews)x
ReplyDeleteShews it certainly has.
ReplyDeleteok so what i want to know is..what will u be bringing along in ur pack back to eat and drink? u should twitter more to us....lol
ReplyDelete(3XXX)
second day!! 18more to go! YOU CAN DO IT! (3XXX)
ReplyDeleteHey Charles I do hope my kebab isnt doin that walk wiv u, see stil not 4got !!! HEHE... Keep up the gud work we r all thinkin of u god bless x x
ReplyDeleteHi All, After 72hrs of this gruelling walk. I'm in a town called Kenema. I have covered approximately 194 miles. I set off from freetown on sunday at the annie walsh school on the eastern part of freetown,through places like calaba town,hastings,waterloo ,newton,magbuntso,masiaka,tiama,senehun,Bo,and now at kenema.
ReplyDeleteThe stories have been amazing and there is a lot to be done around here.At tiama i met with the vice chief tommy and later the MP. Hon. Jolly-Boy Lavalie.He is such a brilliant man who has done so much for his area and continues to do a lot more. It was identified that poverty and lack of education was the two main causes of child and human trafficking. It is very difficult to even live by their monthly earnings and therefore cannot even afford basis medical needs and moreso an education for their children.
I have heard stories of parents who haven't seen thier children for over 10 years .There are grieving mothers looking for their children here.These children could possibly be working in Europe as sex slaves etc.
It is very difficult to have access to the internet to update on regular basis.
I'm going to rest for 3 hours as i have been walking through the night .I will continue to Zimmi which is the last border town before i enter into Liberia for the second leg. I hope to update u with a lot of stories when i arrive in Monrovia.
God Bless.
CDA, KEEP THE FAITH N DO KEEP ON PUMPING ALL THE WAY TO THE END. GOD BLESS.
ReplyDeleteI know your safe, because i hear from you everyday, you are in your 8th day, and still going strong... nearly half way through and im sure you have seen and heard some terrible life stories of families that have lost there children to trafficking, i hope what you are doing is making the people of africa see what is going on and i hope this will help them do more to stop it... stay strong we miss you xx julie xx
ReplyDeleteCDA, Adv your location as at today, 11/11, since I need to send you some stuffs and will like to know where to send them to enable you have access to them. If possible do call me since u do know my cell number. Will be waiting. Shpts will be arriving today.
ReplyDeleteHi Folks,Kindly accept my apology for lack of communication.It's not been easy having access to the Internet more so there has been so many obstacles on the road but i'm safe ,sound and well.
ReplyDeleteI still have my good british sense of humour head on. My body is still in good shape so far as my feet is not really complaining although it has no choice but to carry me through.
It's been very rough over the past 3 days and you will know why.
I left Kenema, Where I happened to witness a case of child abandonment by their parents .The police unit has no good facilities to cater for the children and it was out of the police woman’s pocket that she purchased food for these two kids.
ReplyDeleteIn a chat with her she indicated that was sometimes the case most often. Poverty and education is a big problem in this part of the world. These abandoned kids then sometimes find themselves in the care of some NGO. There are good ones but there are some bad ones which will require the Government to review critically their various operations in Sierra Leone. These bad NGOs serve as a front for some of these trafficking organizations.
There are stories of parents who entrusted their children to these dubious groups and till date cannot be provided answers, if their children are still alive somewhere in the world or not.
From Kenema over the bridge that lies over the great river mua ,I heading for a town about 50 miles away called Zimmi,But I have the mighty rain forest to contend with. There is a dirt track road which is virtually impassable by vehicles. For the first 15 miles of the walk there are settlements of about 2 to 4 mile spacing ,then you go through the forest with nothing but sounds of the rainy night till you are about 10 miles from Zimmi and then there are signs of settlements again.
I got to Zimmi in the evening but due to the rain, I’ve lost out on time to get to the border at Jendema .
In view of that I decided to walk through the night .The night was very rough after seeing a couple of snakes crossing from one end to the other which froze me in my tracks .I knew I was just gambling with my life. I finally got a safe place to camp out about 10am to 3pm as the hot weather temperature started going down. I finally got to a village called Fairo in the early hours of the morning about 4 am.
The guard at the checkpoint was sleeping and jumped with surprise when I greeted him. He might have thought he was seeing a ghost. I asked him if I was far off from Jendema and he said just 8-9miles. I carried on till I got to a school where I rested till 7am and carried on to Jendema.
I reached there in such a stated and everyone was just looking at me wondering where I was coming from. At the Malema police station the police were surprised but interestingly there was a girl sat by who was in a truck that passed by me in the night .So she confirmed to them I was the crazy man walking through the night.
I sat down and gave them an insight of what I was doing and what the dangers of child trafficking. I can tell you at this point that a lot needs to be done on education as these people are not aware of what befalls people trafficked into Europe. They think it’s all roses in Europe and the Americans.
I left to cross the border into Liberia after about 310 miles covered.
Liberia
ReplyDeleteAt Bo waterside .I went through immigration and the security officials were amazed at my adventures. I in turn asked them what they were doing to combat child trafficking. They took me through the recent procedures and on this note I would like to commend the Liberian Government for the measures they have put in place.
At the borders, photographs and a file is kept on record of children traveling over the border with suspected adults even after an all clear is giving. It makes it very difficult in that sense to traffic these kids, but there is another side to it that I later discovered.
After a brief stop at the Hon. Daryl Ambrose Nmah (deputy minister for defense public affairs) in Monrovia, he reconfirmed efforts as heard at Bo waterside border on the government closing in fast on the activities of these cross border child traffickers much to my delight.
Going through Kakata,weala,totota,gbatala,gbarnga I started hearing stories of rural to urban child trafficking in Liberia, rape is on the increase amongst young girls and other sexual exploitation activities.
Children are trafficked to the city to be street hawkers for so called relatives. Child labour is visibly rife. These kids have no choice to sell on the streets and account for their business dealings or they go hungry and beating as on young street hawker of about 10 yrs told me. She was trembling as she spoke and didn’t want people to see I was talking to her.
Reality hit me during the evening in Ganta .Sat by a roadside bar as I refilled by water storage system. I was approached by these two scruffy looking expatriates claiming to be Americans. Sid had an American accent but Bill didn’t. He had an eastern European accent but claimed to by American. The asked if I needed a young girl for the night and I said NO! Then they inquired if I was a porn photographer that needed sexual shots of these young girls so I asked them how young ?and they replied 10yrs to 15yrs.Blood shot through my eyes and I could have ripped off their heads in my state of disgust and anger if no one was around. They even had the cheek to reassure me that they had some police in their back pockets, therefore no trouble will befall me. Bill just said you give us $500 and we will send the girl to you for 1 hour photo or porn video shoot at their location.
I told them I wasn’t interested and walked away .I wanted to report but bearing in mind what they said about their contacts in the police gave me cause to rethink as I’m a walking target.
At saniquelle,I visited a local school and had a fruitful meeting with the head principal Mr. Kpan Dolo of Martha Tub man .He agreed that my issues discussed was true but they need more educational support to constantly send the word out to schools.
At this moment, I’m thinking that if a group of teachers were elected to go round schools frequently to advice school children on such social matters constantly that will help educated the community. It won’t be a perfect solution but will go a long way to prevent some cases.
From Logatuo I went across the border into Ivory Coast .Which has been the most trying time in my whole life. I walked straight into the hands of the rebels. I’m in rebel country .
Ivory coast
ReplyDeleteCrossed over the bridge from Logatuo with a slight hint it was the rebel side. Underestimating reality I went to that side thinking since the war has been over there would have been disarmament by now but I was wrong. I started looking down the barrel of an AK47 with this 5ft 10 very dark skinned lad of probably about 20-25yrs telling me to come.
I knew by now if I trembled that was it. So I confidently took about 6 steps looking straight in his bloodshot eyes ,eyeball to eyeball and I recalled my bad French lingo of “cava?” with an outstretched hand .He looked at me and shook my hand .I made sure I shook him with a strong grip. Then he requested for my passport. I gave it to him and he asked another to call a man from the shed, who I later found out to be the duty commander for the stretch which ends in a town called Danane.
I was thoroughly searched me to check if I had any weapons and kept asking if I was a soldier and I kept saying NO!i ask them why they think I’m a soldier and the said my body build and the confidence with which I walked to approach them. I laughed and at the point denied I have never been in the army and said I walk that way because in England we are very busy and business like. He wanted to know if I was a journalist then and I said no but all I’m doing is a charity walk to help poor children.
Before I knew there were about 13 of them all around me. I was asked to declared the contents of my back pack so I started to un pack and at this point ,the only thing I had to prevent them from seeing is a print out from the save the children website saying I’m an ex soldier. That would mean my credibility was gone. So I took that file out of the backpack first and said “toilet paper for me”. They laughed and I begun to unpack the rest of the bag which was dirty clothing.
After they became convinced that I had nothing to hide to commander said he can’t let me go because in the night some of the rebels turn thieves and could kill me for nothing .That would be out of his control as those weapons have no rules of engagement .So I spent the night with them and during the night they started becoming more friendly as Toure was their interpreter during most conversation with the other rebels. Their English if understood was not that great but was okay for simple conversations.
I asked if there were any child soldiers but they said NO but if things got critical there would be. With that statement I knew there was.
In the morning, I was passed over from one checkpoint to the other through the woods for till we got to Danane, kind compliments of the commander who will never give me his real name.
He had said Ivory coast was not the place to walk so he advised me to leave Danane to Abidjan and get another to the Noe which is the border. He said some of these rebels have organized themselves as highway robbers even from Abidjan to Noe .Therefore it’s not safe .I understood that on my way to the Noe border point with the countless number of checkpoints.
I’m now safe and sound at the elubo border on the Ghana side .where I ‘m updating this blog.I will set off on the final leg heading for Accra .I would like all to know I’m safe and sound with all limbs intact. I have a lot to tell .Thanks for your support.
apart from crying while reading your stories, im shocked beyound with the things you have seen, heard and experienced.. its hard to believe these things are going on in the world, and we know nothing about it, and worst of all, heartbreaking to know what these children are going through this...... i know this is all about the children of Africa, and when you are back, i will work with you to do what ever we can to help these kids and families.... but i am so very proud of you..... stay safe, lv jx
ReplyDeleteI arrived safely back to accra to such a good welcome ceremony.Thanks to all that have supported me during this journey DHL GH, DHL UK,Save The Children and most especially Mrs. Suzanne Westlake.I will update my blog with stories when i get back to the UK.Many Thanks.
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