First there was Mark. His dark eyes peered out from a copy of the New York Times and found the strings of Pam Cope’s heart. At six-years-old Mark was an indentured servant in the Lake Volta region of the Republic of Ghana, working for a man he did not know, trying to do a job bigger than his little hands.

Cope, director of Neosho-based Touch a Life Ministries, saw the young boy wrapped in nothing more than a tattered T-shirt and sprang into action, making telephone calls and sending out e-mails trying to find the child in the newspaper. Since seeing his story in October of last year, Cope’s ministry has freed 20 children, starting with Mark Kwadwo and the six other children featured in the article. They arrived at the Village of Hope just a few days before Christmas, 2006.

The boat children fish the murky waters of Lake Volta. They clean and repair the nets, paddle the boats through the choppy water and when the net is stuck, they dive to free it. They are fed, but not often. They are beaten and work all-hours of the day and night.

Their parents, who are promised money for their children’s services, often never receive the promised payment. Some have no homes to return to. The rescued children told Cope they had watched friends drown in the waters of Lake Volta. They are the faces of human trafficking in Ghana.

Ormand has worked on the lake for the past year an a half. A man came to his widowed mother and offered her the rough equivalent of $130. In return he would take her son, teach him a trade and have him go to school. She took part of the payment and her two sons went to Kete Krachi. When she discovered the truth she made the long journey to the lake region and demanded their release. Negotiators working with Touch a Life were able to obtain Ormand’s release on Sept. 11, his older brother Dada is still on the lake.

Bud Reed, member of Touch a Life’s board of directors, helped direct the release of Ormand and two other boys this September.

“They’re all sick, they all have malaria,” Reed said. “The kids are forced to dive and they catch a parasitic kind of disease called bilharzia which kind of scars the bladder and they urinate blood and they are all anemic and just … really awful. But there is nothing like saving ’em, just nothing like it.”

Isaac, another child rescued last month, is small for his age.

“He says he’s 10-years-old, but he’s just a little, tiny guy.” Reed said

Isaac’s parents are dead and negotiators talked with a man who claimed to be Isaac’s uncle. When the day came to pick Isaac up, his “uncle” was nowhere to be found. His mother died three months ago of AIDS, Isaac was tested and is HIV free.

Touch a Life works through George Achibra and Pacodep, a non-profit partner organization in Ghana. The children released from the fishing boats stay in Achibra’s home while awaiting sponsorship for a transfer to the Village of Hope orphanage in Accra. The boys stay in what was once his office, now a bunkroom and Regina, the girl, with his daughters. Achibra has had seven to 13 children living in his house since the second group of children were rescued in March.

Famous, Macho and Sakorah were brought by police to Achibra’s house in July. Left alone by their master, they went out in search of food, riding 18-nautical miles before being picked up near Kete Krachi. While he says Achibra will never turn children away, Reed wishes they could go after more, currently they have no place to house them.

A building shell has been constructed, but the new 2,200-square-foot bungalow, the start of Golden Village, still needs electric, a well and security. Part of Reed’s mission in Keta Krachi was to arrange for its completion and he hopes it will be operational by the early part of next year. It is only the first house on their 18-acre plot where they hope to place many rescued children.

The children cannot return to their families after they are released, they may be sold again. Achibra works with other organizations and for one of the boys released in May, it was the second time Achibra had bargained for his freedom. After his first release John was sent home to be with his family – they sold him again.

Although ethnically diverse the Ghanaian culture is very unified and as negotiations go on, neighbors join in and shame the owners into releasing their child workers.

“They are Ghanaians first, and Nfanti, Mingo, Adah or Ewe second,” Reed said of the tribal groups allegiance to their unified government. The government is democratic, he says, but corrupt.

Ghanaian culture and tradition dictate that children should learn a trade, the enslavement of children to their boat masters hides under the veil of “apprenticeship.” In December of 2006 Ghana passed a strict anti-trafficking law with penalties of up to life in prison, but it is not enforced. Many of the fishermen see child labor as the only way for them to stay in business.

Kweitey was released from his master, Christian, on Sept. 7, but after a few days without the help he wanted Kweitey back. Legally he has no right to the boy, but Kweitey was immediately transferred to Village of Hope in Accra to prevent any problems.

The children’s stories hold the common thread of misery, missing parents, poverty and life on the islands of Lake Volta. Once they are away from their masters Reed says he can see an almost instant transformation.

“To watch these children’s eyes go from despair and hopelessness, it was just … they look dead when you look in their faces,” Reed said. “And within days they are bright and happy and they have such an incredible appetite, and insatiable appetite to learn. Pencils and paper and little picture books are just the most precious thing in the world to them.

“I can’t wait to get the thing build and others built so we can rescue some more, there are thousands of them there that are just wasting away.”