How can I buy African children out of slavery?

Question

I recently heard about someone raising enough money to buy 7 African slaves from their "masters" and was able to send them to schools and turn around their lives. I heard all it takes is about $380 to buy a child out of slavery. I would like more information about this, and would also appreciate if anyone has the link to the story about the person who has done this. Thanks so much!

Answer 1

1. CHILD SLAVERY
Child slavery is a big problem in West Africa, in general, and especially in Ghana. There are various forms of child slavery, and here are three (of which you heard about the first).
a) Volta Lake fishing
http://allafrica.com/photoessay/child_slaves/
b) Trokosi shrine brides
http://www.kidsyes.org/slavechildren.htm
c) Cocoa farms
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/fairtrade/cocoa/background.html

2. FREEING SLAVES
Don't attempt to do this yourself. There are a number of organisations working to free slaves - fund one of them. The organisation that you heard about was Touch A Life, which recently freed seven children from slavery at Lake Volta, as highlighted on Oprah. Whilst what it does is humanitarian, Touch A Life is a very small-scale operation. In comparison, the IOM is committed to rescuing 1,200 children from Lake Volta.
a) VOLTA LAKE SLAVES
(i) Free The Slaves / APPLE
http://www.freetheslaves.net/about/partners/apple/
(ii) Touch A Life / Village of Hope
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=118713
http://www.thevillageofhope.com/
http://www.touchalifekids.org/
(iii) International Organization for Migration (IOM) - "a minimum of USD 20 per month for at least one year"
http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2003/01/12/slave_fishers030112.html
http://www.iom.int/jahia/page1666.html
b) TROKOSI SLAVES
(i) Needs International - manages to free young women from trokosi slavery for $58 a head (2001)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/1158115.stm
http://www.ineeds.org.uk/worldmap.html
(ii) Every Child Ministries - "it costs about $200 to free one trokosi and help her start a new life. All her children go free with her, so it ends up costing about $40 per person when we consider the children as well."
http://www.ecmafrica.org/Page.aspx?id=36288
c) COCOA FARM CHILD LABOUR
(i) The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD)
http://www.soulhouronline.com/Soulhour/newsdetails.asp?id=2189&cat_id=3
http://www.cocobod.gh/indexcoco.cfm
(ii) International Cocoa Initiative (ICI)
http://www.candyusa.org/Media/Hot/Cocoa/default.asp
http://www.cocoainitiative.org/default.asp?lang=en