TYLER (KYTX) - A Tyler woman is part of a team helping African children sold into the human trafficking industry.
She is working with three other non-profit organizations to build an art center for children in Ghana.
Lewis has always considered herself a designer, but now she's becoming a hero.
"Our team is called Go Team Ghana," Lewis says. "We're a design group that's collaborating to help build an art center in Ghana, West Africa for children that have been pulled out of modern day slavery."
She says the children are treated horribly.
"Their families have sold them basically to a lake, it's called Lake Volta in Ghana for basically the equivalent of $20. The kids are made to fish all day. It's a fishing industry there."
Lewis says a lot of the kids are killed in the process.
"The lake was filled over woods so there's trees under the water. They go down, but they've never been taught to swim. Some of the kids are as young as 5 years old, and some of them never come back up," she says.
These organizations believe as many as 7,000 kids are forced to fish on Lake Volta. Only 100 have been rescued.
"So all of these kids, that's the 100 we're building an art center for," Lewis says.
She says art is therapeutic, and hopes the center will give them back the childhood that has been taken from them.
"These kids, they're five and they're going straight into the workforce. They've never colored or anything," Lewis says.
She visited Ghana in April, and made a promise to return with art supplies.
"Our goal is, we're going to ship a container out of Long Beach, CA, hopefully on October 1st. Then we'll fill that container with art and supplies, furniture, basically anything we need for the art center. We'll ship it out, hope it lands in Ghana when we want it to, and go back the day after Christmas."
They will go with a whole team of contractors who will help build the art center in a week. Eventually, dorms and a food hall will also be built for the rescued children. Lewis hopes the center will be a new beginning for children who have seen so little joy in life.
The team has raised $10,000 in the last week and a half alone. They hope to raise $35,000 by September 1.
If you want to donate, or just get more information, go to www.goteamghana.org
