2020 Staff Story: Leo Ackon, Ghana

Leo Ackon has been working for IJM since 2016, reaching diverse audiences across Ghana to bring partners into the work of ending child trafficking in the fishing industry. Whether meeting with celebrities and politicians, or pastors and fishermen, Leo has developed strong partnerships to propel the anti-trafficking movement forward in Ghana.

Leo’s background is in journalism and public advocacy. Most recently before IJM, he was working with the Christian Council of Ghana as their PR and Media Coordinator. He is also currently an associate pastor for a local church in Accra.

While Leo grew up in the church, it was his encounters with the reality of violence and oppression that led him to expand how he thought about the role of justice in his Christian faith.

Leo recalls, “As a young Christian, I learned to view ministry to people who were oppressed or in poverty as something optional, that we could do as and when necessary. I saw the fight for justice as the main responsibility of the government and a Christian should not really be very concerned about it. Even as a pastor, like many other pastors in Ghana, I thought justice was not our core responsibility, but that of government.  Then God began to challenge me to expand my thinking.”

While Leo was involved in advocacy on slavery issues with his previous job, after joining IJM he was able to see firsthand the reality of children being used as slave labor. This is when he was awakened to God’s heart for justice. Since then, Leo has led his team to educate and equip church leaders in Ghana to also understand and become passionate about justice and to help end child slavery on Lake Volta.

“We must try as much as possible to sort of create that kind of awareness and sort of flip the narrative, because the issue about justice is not really big within the church setting here in Ghana.”

Leo and the advocacy team have been flipping that narrative, introducing Christians across Ghana to the reality of slavery and calling on them to be part of the solution. Freedom Sunday has been held in Ghana for three years now, even expanding beyond the borders to churches in Togo, Benin and Ivory Coast. Regular Justice Conferences have provided teaching on the biblical basis for justice and how pastors can be advocates for the issue of child trafficking. During one of these conferences, one pastor even confessed to using child labor for fishing.

The advocacy team has also held conferences for fishermen’s associations, educating them on the laws around trafficking and challenging them to give up the practice of exploiting children for labor.

“The onus is on us, for us to be willing and for us to be vulnerable to avail ourselves, to be an extension of God's love to these people that are suffering.” Leo explains how he sees the work of ending slavery in the context of God’s kingdom.  “Let it be said about us as Christians that because of our acts, because of our actions, because of our generosity, because of our voice, that boy of five years old didn't drown on the lake, or that girl was not sexually exploited and now has gone to school to become a lawyer to defend other people, because of an act that I did…Let it be said about us.”