The Seidi Community in the Atwima Nwabiagya south Municipality in the Ashanti region has benefited from series of sensitization forums against the use of children in mining, especially illegal Mining popularly known as Galamsey.
The sensitization was organized for Parents,Teachers,stakeholders and school children in Seidi,the predominantly farming Community noted for mining activities involving children of school going age to expose them to health, legalities and environmental impact in order to get them stop using children fro mining.
Participants in a group photograph
The well attended forum organized by Madam Bernice Asante with full support of Seidi M/A Basic Junior High School (JHS) was funded by Global Greengrants Fund (GGF).
The forum which was held on 1st August,2023 at The Church of Pentecost auditorium at Seidi. was on the theme “The use of children in mining: Legalities and implications on health, environment and education”.
The key facilitators were:Dr.David Adu-Poku, Senior Lecturer,University of Energy and Natural Resources-UENR and Madam Lucy Afari-Yeboah,The Ashanti Regional Registrar- Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).
Dr.David Adu-Poku and Mad.Lucy Afari-Yeboah
Speaking on the Use of Children in mining: Legalities on Health, Environment and Education”, Dr.David Adu-Poku stressed on the need for all hands to be on deck to fight against illegal mining across the country.
He said Ghana is Africa’s largest gold producer; overtook South Africa in 2019 with 4.8Million.
According to him, other commercially exploited minerals in Ghana are Manganese, bauxite, and diamonds. God, he said has blessed the nation with many resources and that about 95% of financial contribution to the economy is generated from Gold.”There are a lot of benefits from proper mining including development Projects, employment etc but things need to be done rightly.
Dr.Adu-Poku making presentation
He said Employment generation from large scale mining sector is about 20,000 but the negative impact nationally, seeming mismatch between development and mineral revenue. According to Dr.Adu-Poku locally, host mining communities are becoming perpetually impoverished, high unemployment, high cost of living (food, housing, health, education etc).
These he said increased poverty and social vices (prostitution, school dropouts, family breakdown, and teenage pregnancy among others).
He pointed out that with large scale mining, the employees or workers are protected because of the use of proper equipment but the surrounding communities usually bear the consequences or negative impact but with artisanal/small scale gold production, the risk is very high because they do it on the surface without personal protective Equipment (PPEs).
He stated emphatically that the engagement of children in illegal mining exposed them to several dangers. He revealed that usually nursing mothers are engaged in the risky illegal mining properly known as Galamsey without taking into consideration the negative impact on their health and that of their kids.
The Senior Lecturer of UENR said “we must be worried about the involvement of women and especially children in illegal mining activities”.
He said the use of mercury and cyanide has negative impact on the children and mothers.These include; health cost, socio-economic cost , environmental cost among other cost to the children and the nation.
Mad.Lucy Afari-Yeboah making presentation
Dr Adu-Poku touching on the health cost of illegal mining to women and children cautioned miners against the use of mercury mostly by artisanal and small scale gold miners.
He hinted that even though, mercury is very poisonous which is not supposed to be easy accessible but Gold dealers are trading mercury in barter trade with illegal miners across illegal mining communities. Using pictorial evidence in his power point presentation to give participants clear understanding of his message, Dr.Adu-Poku said “Mercury is no go area because it’s poisonous. Mercury he said is exposed to air,water,fish, vaccines, amalgam fillings and cosmetics, lotions, and fragrances makes everyone at risk
According to him, long term negative effects as a result of the use of mercury in mining especially on children include;Brain -behavior problem, lower IQ, hearing loss and learning disability.
On the implications on environment, the Senior Lecturer said the uniminaginable environmental cost include; water pollution, depletion of forest.
He said there are alternative to the use of mercury which is poisonous which are sluice boxes,the use of Borax,mild leaching (cyanidation).He disclosed that most large scale mining companies use cyanide.He therefore appealed to the government to focus on training of miners in the country to desist from engaging children, nursing mothers and the use of mercury for any form of mining activities.
The Ashanti Regional Registrar of CHRAJ,Madam Lucy Afari-Yeboah mentioned that Children’s Act,1998 (Act 560) enjoined Parents not to force children into any form of Hazardous work.She encouraged parents to enroll their wards into school, invest in them to become self-sufficient .According to her, proper education empowers children in all their endeavours. “Let’s enroll our children to school or vocational training.The law enjoined us not to maltreat our children or force them into illegal mining or any form of hazardous work”,she added.
Mad.Lucy Afari-Yeboah said “let’s all help to expose parents who force their children into illegal mining.We need to encourage our children to attend school”.
She said Article 94 of Children’s Act forbid children from mining especially illegal mining and cautioned children in Seidi and nearby communities to desist from mining before they are catch up with the law.CHRAJ,she said is always ready to standby children.
She said Act 560, session 94 of Children Act forbids parents from forcing children into hazardous work and cautioned them to stop exploitation of their children,She also advised children to be obedient to their parents and guidance.
Mad.Lucy Afari-Yeboah asked Parents to stop the blame game and take good care of their children. “Let’s help them to understand the health and environmental implications on illegal mining as well as the benefits of quality education”,
Nana Boakye -Seidi Chief also stressed on the urgent need for government to take a critical look at the proliferation of the use of mercury by galamseyers before they destroy everyone.
He encouraged the organizers to intensify the education against the use of children in illegal mining and the use of mercury for mining.The head teacher of Seidu Basic School ,Mr.Godfred Yeboah cried over kids abandoning school to date galamseyers which he said was affecting effective teaching and learning.
According to him, school going age involvement in Galamsey is gravely affecting teaching and learning as a result of absenteeism. Mr.Godfred Yeboah was grateful to the organizers for selecting the community and the school as beneficiaries of the forum.Source:tntnewspapergh.com
