Mercy Project

I only recently learned of Mercy Project. I hope by means of this post to spread the word about this group and the important work they are doing.

Labor Day is an American holiday that we celebrate with food, family, friends, and fireworks. Many of us have forgotten (if we ever knew) that Labor Day is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of the labor movement, which in generations past fought hard for fair, ethical working practices and laws that prevent discrimination, abuse, and child labor in our country.

Child trafficking and child labor still exist, of course, and there remain many children around the world are literally enslaved. That is why Mercy Project exists.

Imagine children working 14 hours a day, 7 days a week. Imagine what it would be like if your children or grandchildren had to endure long, hard days of physical labor, eating one meal a day, and then falling asleep at night on a dirt floor filled with other slave children. This is the daily reality for an estimated 7,000 kids who have been trafficked into the fishing industry in Ghana, Africa--some as young as 5 and 6 years old. Crippling poverty in Ghana leaves many mothers in an unimaginable position: sell their children to someone who can take better care of them or watch them starve to death. Most of the mothers are told their children will be given food, housing, and an education. Instead, the kids are often taken to Lake Volta where they become child slaves; their mothers never see them again.

Mercy Project is working to break the cycles of trafficking around Lake Volta by providing alternate, more efficient, sustainable, fishing methods for villagers–-ultimately eliminating the need for child slaves. Because of the work Mercy Project is doing in Ghana, the first group of children will be freed this month from Lake Volta.

Watch this moving, 10 minute documentary about the issues surrounding child labor and trafficking in Ghana and the hope Mercy Project is bringing to children and entire communities in Africa.



Mercy Project is the only NGO working on Lake Volta, addressing the injustice of child labor and child trafficking at its root--by strengthening the Ghanaian economy and eliminating the structures that cause the demand for trafficked children.

Please consider becoming a part of what Mercy Project is doing in Ghana. Here are just a few ways to do that:

• Watch and share Mercy Project’s short documentary on YouTube (click here).

• "Like" Mercy Project on Facebook.

• Follow Mercy Project via Twitter.

• Spend some time on Mercy Project’s website.

• Share this post about Mercy Project’s work in Ghana with your friends, using the email link at the bottom of this post.