Breaking the Chain Through Education

Breaking the Chain Through Education

Our Mission

Our Story

The Problem

Breaking the Chain Through Education is a non-profit organization dedicated to eradicating child slavery in Ghana, Africa.

So far we have rescued 70 children, who have been returned to their families and are now attending school, some for the first time. We will continue to rescue children who have been trafficked and restore them to a life of dignity and education.

We have built a school for 240 children, and we have helped to provide teacher housing and school supplies. We will continue our mission, but we need your help!

To achieve a permanent end to trafficking, we work to address its root causes by dedicating our funds to:

the rescue, rehabilitation and education of enslaved children

ensuring the continued safety and security of our rescued children and their access to secondary education

the building and maintenance of local schools

providing seed money to the children’s families to lessen the grip of poverty and the cycle of trafficking

By establishing schools in destitute villages, we provide local fishermen and their children with educational opportunities and alternatives ways to earn a living. In exchange, the children they traffic are set free and returned to life with their families. In other villages and regions, we work to educate parents and create a culture where trafficking is not acceptable, while providing funds to rescue and rehabilitate their children. We believe this multifaceted approach, with a special focus on improving educational opportunities, is the best way to “break the chain” of child slavery.

Lake Volta in Ghana is the world’s largest man made lake, and also the epicenter for much of the forced child labor in Ghana. Each day, hundreds of children wake up before sunrise and head out onto the lake as fishing assistants. These young boys’ and girls’ parents sold them into slavery in the hopes of getting supplemental income and/or an education for their children. Many of these children are sold into slavery when they are just 3 or 4 years old. These children work on rickety fishing boats from sunrise to sunset every day. The labor is so physically demanding, the burdens placed on the young children distort their bodies forever. The “fishing children” receive no education, are fed sparingly (often only receiving a single meal a day, if that), and often die of untreated illnesses, or directly because of their labor.

Because Lake Volta is a man made lake, there are many trees underwater that often get caught in the fishing nets. When this happens, fishermen (the slave owners) force a child to dive into the freezing water to free the net from the branches. Quite often, in an attempt to free the net, the fishing children end up getting caught in it themselves, drowning as they try to escape. There are thousands of these fishing children throughout Lake Volta, and it is estimated that hundreds, even thousands, of children have died as a direct cause of their forced labor.

About Us

About the Founder

Breaking the Chain Through Education consists of individuals and donors who are deeply committed to the mission. We are a unique grassroots organization. Close to 100% of funds raised by Breaking the Chain go directly to serve our mission. Our overhead costs total less than 1% of our donations. We have no salaried members or overhead costs aside from printing and publishing of materials.

Evan Robbins, the founder of BTCTE, is a teacher of social studies at Metuchen High School in NJ. Having earned his MA in education, he has taught social studies for over 20 years. Evan currently teaches AP European History, US History and Political Institute. The Political Institute covers world events and issues, and BTCTE began as an outgrowth of this course. In addition to organizing the BTCTE club at MHS, Evan has served as the adviser to several extracurricular clubs: Mock Trial, Harvard Model Congress, Model UN, and Power of Friendship (which pairs special needs children with typical students). For the past 12 years, Evan has served as the president of the Metuchen Education Association. Evan's efforts to expand the BTCTE club led to the formation of the charity's board and its attainment of 501(3)C status in January of 2012. Evan has organized numerous fundraiser events and educational programs and has overseen all of the charity's operations. He has traveled to Ghana three times since 2010 on missions for BTCTE. Evan has won several awards for his humanitarian work, including two MLK human rights awards from the NJEA and the NAACP and the Grand Prize of the Charity of Champions in 2010, 2012 and 2013 .