It could be called one of Africa’s tragic historic ironies. Centuries after the last slave had been put into bondage and sold to Latin and North America as well as the Caribbean on Africa’s infamous slave coast, which are nowadays the shores of Togo and Ghana; what has been called the twenty century equivalents of slavery victimize too many of the youngest and most vulnerable citizens of these countries: human trafficking, which often results in forced and monetarily uncompensated out-of-household labor.

Meet Karine Assilatanon, 15 years old, from the village of Davié outside of Lomé, located in a region in which malnourishment among children is widespread and poverty hinders most children from pursuing the three years of pre-school education, which the Togolese government officially provides. Countrywide, 39 percent of all girls are not enrolled in school, a condition that serves as a breeding ground for child exploitation, particularly of girls. Approximately 11 years ago, Karine’s mother, who is widowed, was informed about the possibility that her daughter could work in neighboring Ghana. Knowing that Ghanaian wages, although still beneath international standards, were higher than in Togo, her mother decided that she should work there. However, promises of a salary turned out to be empty, and Karine had to press fruits for juices without receiving any payment. According to estimates of CARE caseworker Rose Adjowoa Kpogli, working shifts for girls like Karine can last up to 22 hours, with as few as 2 hours off for sleeping in extreme cases. All too often, these girls become victims of rape or sexual harassment.

Ama Dovo, 17 years old and also from Davié, never attended school, which is why she took off to Lomé to find employment. She was also the child of a widowed mother; in many societies a difficult situation to be in. She found work at a stone mine in Lomé, where she performed excruciatingly hard and at times life-threatening work, for which she was never paid. Not only was she not paid, she was also not provided with adequate food and experienced acute hunger.

Unlike the biographies of a majority of girls in exploitative circumstances, these girl’s stories found more happy endings. A caseworker of the REVE project – an NGO coalition spearheaded by CARE Togo, which seeks to provide social protection for 1000 young domestic employers in Togo – heard of Karine’s fate and negotiated a return. Ama was discovered during a workplace awareness campaign for employers. A return was facilitated for her, too. Today both of them are undergoing an apprenticeship in the manufacturing and design of local clothes, for which they are paid to meet their dietary and other basic needs.

The REVE project is yet another prove of the importance of relying on local partners, as CARE does whenever possible. As REVE’s coordinator Blewoussi Ablavi explains, there is no common solution for returnees from exploitative circumstances. Whenever possible, they are reintegrated into their families. But when an exploiter is to be found in the immediate family, a returnee may have to face stigmatization or presents a too heavy financial burden on the immediate family despite some compensation, distant family members are sought after. State children’s protection and foster care systems exist in an only very rudimentary form in Togo, if at all. It also depends on the individual case to assess if schooling is still viable.

The rehabilitation of the returnees demands great sensitivity, social work that is locally-rooted – as well as difficult decisions. But as one hears Ama and Karin talk of their dreams of operating a fashion atelier and sing a song that translates into “Now we are capable of living” with her colleagues at the training facility, the importance of the implementation of projects with such a child rights` based approach becomes very tangible. Nobody can give Ama and Karin their childhood back, but they now gained confidence in the prospect of a better future.

* Jonas Ecke is a Development Studies graduate student, recently returned from a short internship with CARE in Ghana. He can be contacted at j_ecke@yahoo.com.