‘I don’t think anyone thinks of us’: experiences of teenage head porters amidst COVID-19 in Ghana

ABSTRACT In Ghana, a population of teenage head porters have made the streets their sole living and breathing space. They are faced with several challenges as they live and work on the streets. The era of COVID-19 amidst several safety protocols that should be followed including maintaining physical and social distance as well as reducing movements appears to be detrimental to the survival patterns of teenager head porters as they live and work on the streets. Consequently, the study explores the experiences of teenage head porters in the wake of the pandemic to draw practice implications. Evidence was collected using semi-structured qualitative interviews with 20 teenage head porters in Kumasi, Ghana. Narratives were analyzed thematically using reflective thematic analysis procedures. The study identified Kinship neglect and high exposure to infection as over-arching challenges experienced by teenage head porters on the streets amidst COVID-19. The study suggests providing emergency state intervention programs to aid teenage head porters' survival. Findings also support working with social workers to spearhead the campaign for these interventions as a humanitarian profession and recommend that the Department of Social Welfare collaborates with some agencies and organizations like the street children’s project in Accra and Kumasi to provide alternative economic engagements like vocational training to take them out of the streets.