Say NO to trafficking!

Theresa, 15, is a World’s Children’s Prize Child Rights Ambassador in Ghana and she says NO to trafficking:
“Girls here can be victims of trafficking. That’s when you get sold and taken from one place to another to work. It happened to me when I was ten. My family was very poor. When a woman offered to take care of me and make sure I got the chance to go to school, my mother and I were delighted. I thought I would get to go to school all day long. Instead, I had very little time at school and a great deal of work to do. Early in the morning I sold water at a market, and in the afternoon I sold school books and other things. One day, the woman’s daughter accidentally accepted a fake bank note from a customer at the market, but everyone blamed me. They beat me so badly that I still have scars on my body. They scorched my legs with burning logs and beat me on the back with a cast-iron pot. And they refused to pay my wages. Since I didn’t have anywhere else to go, I was forced to work for the woman as a slave for two years. But one day, after a severe beating, I had had enough. I put on my favorite dress and ran away. Finally, I ended up with my aunt. Now I’m in Junior High school, a Child Rights Ambassador and a member of a WCP Child Rights Club. Before I joined the club I didn’t know a thing about the rights of the child, or about girls having equal rights. But now I know that I have a right to an education and a right to live with my parents.
Through being a WCP Child Rights Ambassador, I can tell other girls about our rights. So that they don’t get tricked and end up in the same situation I had to endure. It’s important to know your rights. If you read The Globe magazine, you will be well-informed on that subject!”