GIVING HOPE TO KAYAYOS

The future looks bright for Kayayos (young migrants from northern Ghana engaged in head-portage) in the country as Peoples Dialogue, Ghana (PD Ghana) in collaboration with the Kayayo Youth Association, engages the Office of the Vice President.  Kayayo Youth Association is a member of the Ghana Federation of the Urban Poor.

The engagement with the office of the Vice-President of Ghana led to a community-led enumeration exercise to collect data and other basic information on the Kayayos and their activities across the major cities in the country. The enumeration report which among other things recommended a comprehensive guidance and counseling programme for Kayayos on skills development and career path has been submitted to the office of the Vice-President with the expectation that appropriate actions will be taken to address the needs and aspirations of the Kayayo.

PDG and the Kayayo Youth Association also expect that the office of the Vice-President will support the formulation of relevant programmes that will link the skills training options to the jobs that are available in the market. This according to the report will prevent a situation where people acquire skills they do not actually need or will never use thereby returning to the street in order to survive on menial jobs.

Over the past years, Ghana has been confronted with massive migration of people, particularly young men and women mostly from poor communities in northern part of the country to Accra and other major cities such as Kumasi, Takoradi and Tema in search of jobs and other economic opportunities.

These young migrants engage mostly in head-portage popularly known as “Kayayoo” and other menial jobs such as domestic servitude and street trade. The Kayayo phenomenon and its allied street activities seems to be a never-ending situation and many more young people, mostly girls migrate each passing day to the cities and other urban centres of the country. The situation has been attributed to policy and system failures including both pull and push factors.

To address this challenge the leadership of Kayayo Youth Association together with People’s Dialogue deemed it fit to engage the office of the Vice-President on the issue during which PDG and the leadership of Kayayo Youth Association were tasked to conduct an enumeration to gather up to date information about the membership and challenges confronting head porters.

People’s Dialogue Ghana together with Kayayo Youth Association listed and collected information on about 15,000 Kayayos operating in the city of Accra.