Machine Chops Off Boy�s Leg�Indian-Owned Company Abandons Victim [PHOTO]

The recruitment of children to work in dehumanizing conditions by some manufacturing companies under the guise of offering them employment has taken a horrible twist and left a sore taste in the mouth of the mother of a sixteen-year-old Junior High School (JHS) leaver whose leg was chopped off barely a week after he was employed. The reason that sent Jerome Afaglo, a former pupil of Adaklu JHS, to knock on the doors of Indian-owned Gravita Company, a car battery recycler in the Tema Industrial area, was for him to work and raise money to support his mother pay admission fees when he gets admission to senior high school, but that dream has been dashed. His dreams are consigned to the wheel chair he would be sitting on for life as officials of Gravita Company, the corporation where he was involved in the industrial accident, has virtually abandoned him to his fate. Not even is the management of the company sticking to an agreed arrangement of providing a paltry sum of GH�50.00 a week for his upkeep and transportation cost to the hospital, so that, his wounds would be healed. Master Afaglo�s mum, Grace Esinam Kumadzi, who sells fruits to survive and take care of the family because her husband is late, is unable to cope with the frustrations and financial responsibility of taking care of Jerome�s medical bills and his dream of becoming a nurse one day. They are, therefore, appealing to the minister of gender; children and social protection, Nana Oye Lithur, to intervene to get officials of Gravita to compensate the little boy to enable them sustain his cherished dream of becoming a nurse. Speaking to the Daily Heritage with fine lines of pain written all over his face, Jerome Afaglo, said the incident which occurred on August 10, 2013, around 4:00 a.m. has become a nightmare he is hoping to wake up from. �Before I realized, the machine that grinds the car batteries, had fallen on my leg, with blood oozing profusely.� �I was in pain, and all I did was to pray that I should not die because I do not know who is going to take care of my mother,� he recounted sadly. Asked why he had taken up such a dangerous job at a tender age, Master Afaglo told the paper tersely that: �my father is dead, and I want to go to school. I know that I would pass the B.E.C.E. but what I was not certain of is where the money for the continuation of my education would come from, that is why I wanted to work to raise money to support my mum.� Checks by the Daily Heritage reveal that officials of Gravita Company had not reported the industrial accident of 16-year-old Jerome Afaglo to the police for investigation into the incident. Again, according to his mother, they did not seek his consent before his leg was amputated by doctors of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, as enshrined in the laws of country. The Daily Heritage will keep our readers updated on the plight of Jerome Afaglo.