Elizabeth’s second chance: A story of courage and possibility.
How Ghana’s Public-Private Partnership to Address the Root Causes of Child Labour Gave Her a Second Chance
At sixteen, Elizabeth had just written her Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE). Instead of feeling relieved and excited, she was worried she might never return to school—because she was pregnant. In Ayensuano, a district in Ghana’s Eastern Region where she lives with her father and four siblings, hope seemed distant.
Ghana is the world’s second largest producer of cocoa with about 770,000 children working in cocoa growing communities. Elizabeth would have become engaged in work too difficult for her age and dangerous for her health and development, making her one of the statistics, as her community is a cocoa-growing area with reports of child labour.
Fortunately, Ghana’s Re-entry Policy for Pregnant Girls and Young Mothers, introduced in 2018, allows girls to return to school after childbirth. Elizabeth’s father didn’t know this until he attended a community durbar at Kraboa Coaltar, a suburb in the district, where Social Welfare Officers were creating awareness about child protection and the right of teenage mothers to continue their education. It was at that durbar that he learned his daughter could go back to school after delivery.
These community engagements are part of Ghana’s Integrated Social Services (ISS) approach, supported by the Swiss Platform for Sustainable Cocoa (SWISSCO) through UNICEF in technical collaboration with the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI), to strengthen child protection and link families to health, education, and social support to prevent vulnerable children from child labour and becoming school drop-out. At the durbar, Elizabeth’s father realized that his daughter’s dream of becoming a policewoman—a dream inspired by her uncle’s smart uniform—was still possible.
DETERMINATION
Two years later, when her exam results arrived and baby Josephine was born, Elizabeth returned to school. “When I wore the school uniform, I was so happy,” she said. She gained admission to Kraboa Coaltar Presbyterian Senior High Technical School, her local senior High School to study Home Economics in the Food and Nutrition department. Though more than a year behind her peers, the feeling of going back was surreal.
Her reintegration began while she was still pregnant. Social Welfare activated a case management process under ISS, which included:
- Assessment: Identifying Elizabeth’s health, education, and psychosocial needs and documenting the case in the Social Welfare Information Management System.
- Case Planning: Bringing together Education and Health services, both families, and agreeing on baby care arrangements.
- Referral & Coordination: Linking her to prenatal care and negotiating financial support from the boy’s family for the baby’s upkeep.
- Monitoring: Ensuring commitments were honored and adjusting plans as needed.
The plan was clear: both families would care for the baby, and after six months—once baby Josephine was weaned—Elizabeth would return to school and not have to engage in child labour.
Future Full of Possibilities
Elizabeth’s return was not without challenges. Each school day, she wakes up at 4 a.m., bathes Josephine, cooks her meal, feeds her, and leaves the baby with her grandmother before heading to school by 7:30. When her grandmother isn’t available, Josephine’s paternal grandmother steps in, though this means extra transport costs and longer trips home. Weekends are for bonding, playing with Josephine and letting her sit beside her as she does chores.
Going back to school has opened a new world of possibilities. Elizabeth no longer fears being a dropout. She dreams of becoming a policewoman and hopes her daughter will also enjoy her right to education. “When Josephine turns two, I’ll enroll her in school,” she says with determination.
