Esther* grew up in rural Ghana, hours from the waters of Lake Volta.

But when a woman approached her parents, claiming there was a family near the lake who would send their daughter to school, they allowed the woman to take her. The promise of an education was a lie. Little Esther was enslaved when she was just six years old.

On the day Esther left home with this woman, nobody gave the situation a second thought.

When she arrived on the shores of Lake Volta, nobody called the police. And when she crawled into a canoe early in the morning to begin fishing for the man and woman who exploited her, nobody was looking for her.

Esther was totally and completely hidden from the eyes of the world. But she wasn’t alone. Thousands of young children trapped in slavery on Lake Volta today wonder if freedom will ever come as they endure beatings, starvation and life-threatening conditions.

Right now we urgently need to raise £50,000 to send IJM teams around the world to find and free children like Esther.

This was Esther’s life: Sweep. Clean. Descale fish. Smoke fish. Collect wood. Go to the market.

Week after week. Month after month. Year after gruelling year.

Until we met Geoffrey*.

Esther was one of them. She stepped into a police boat with other rescued children and cried as the island, where she was trapped, vanished into the distance.

Based on the information Esther provided, IJM and police were able to rescue nine more children – including Emelia – as well as a young woman and her infant child.

Today, after nearly 10 years in slavery, Esther is safe at an aftercare home while the trial against the woman who trafficked her is underway. She is finally getting an education and has the opportunity to freely play games with her friends and live the life she wants.

Tens of thousands of children like her remain enslaved on Lake Volta. But together, we can continue the chain of rescue that brought freedom to Geoffrey, Esther and Emelia.