Saving Tomorrow
Nutrition/ Development
According to a press release issued by UNICEF Ghana on October 16, 2019, nearly 20% of all children under the age of 5 are underdeveloped and about 10% of children under the age of 5 are underweight. Nearly ⅔ of children between the ages of six months and two years do not receive nutrition that adequately supports their rapidly growing bodies and brains. This puts them at risk for poor brain development, learning disabilities, weak immune systems, increased infections, and in many cases, death.
Education
Ghana has a state education system that is not sufficiently capable of providing appropriate schooling for all children. An analysis of education statistics by the World Bank shows that over 85% of children attend school, and of these, over 94% complete elementary school. After that, only just under 60% of children attend secondary school.
Violence/ Sexual Abuse
As part of UNICEF's 2013 baseline research report, Ghanaian children aged 14-17 were surveyed about their experiences with physical violence. Over 57% of respondents reported being beaten "all the time" or "sometimes" at home, while 34% confirmed being beaten by teachers at school in the last month. This was found to be true for both girls and boys, in both rural and urban areas.
A 2016 academic study at LMU Munich on child sexual abuse in Ghana, based on studies conducted, described that among school children, 27.5% of girls and 11.3% of boys and among street children, 42.8% of girls and 11.1% of boys were victims of sexual abuse.
Child Labor/ Human Trafficking
A 2018 statistic from the U.S. government's Bureau of International Labor Affairs shows that many children in Ghana continue to be involved in the worst forms of child labor, including in fishing and cocoa harvesting, sometimes as a result of human trafficking. Prohibitions related to the commercial sexual exploitation of children and the use of children in illegal activities do not meet international standards. The government has also not acceded to the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution, and child pornography, and resource constraints severely limit the ability of government social protection agencies to fully implement social programs.
