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SOURCE:  CNN

The fact that singer Jason Mraz would wind up in Ghana for a humanitarian mission makes sense to a lot of people.

The singer of hits like “I’m Yours” and “The Remedy” was so moved by a fellow musician Luc Reynaud’s “Freedom Song” that he joined forces with a nonprofit organization, Free the Slaves, to help end child slavery in the West African nation.

In Ghana, it is common for parents to send their children to apprentice with a relative to learn a skill. But sometimes, the children will end up caught in slave labor.

Other parents knowingly sell their children to fishermen to wrangle nets 17 hours a day.

Mraz spent five days in Ghana this month, getting to know kids who were freed from slavery and taking part in a rescue mission himself.

Helping him navigate the intricacies of the rescue was his guide, James Kofi Annan, a former child slave. Now a free adult, Annan works on Lake Volta to rescue enslaved children.

“All he ever wanted as a child was a rescue boat to come and get him. So now, that’s what he does, and in the last few years he’s had the boat, he’s freed more than 80 children,” Mraz said.

With Annan’s help, Mraz also raised awareness about child slavery in Ghana and in his own community. He believes that his trip was truly a success.

He shared the joys and the dangers of his experience with CNN. The following is an edited version of that interview.

CNN: You’ve been blogging about your trip, and in one of your posts, you say, “My view of the world in my stance for equality has been blown wide open.” What was your definition of equality before you went to Ghana, and how has it changed now that you’re back?

Mraz: Well, my view before was a Western view, and I certainly understand marriage equality and civil rights, equal rights for all, but having visited developing nations and some of the poorest nations in the world, I realize how deep it goes and how much work really needs to be done to create equality for all. So I think my conversation is going to get a lot bigger and the work that I do is going to involve a lot more detail.

CNN: What’s your next step? You spent five days in Ghana; are you planning on going back? Are you planning on raising more awareness here in the United States?

Mraz: What I’d love to do is work with kids in the U.S. to raise their awareness and encourage them to be global citizens. We’re all connected these days; we can listen to the same music as kids all around the world and share our ideas.

So, I think I would like to work in a place where I can relate to people and me coming home with my stories and pictures and tales — maybe an entire classroom can put together fundraising and activities. And they can, throughout the year, watch what their resources and their actions cause in the world, because I think that it’s important that people know that they can make a difference.

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MY TAKE: If you want to be a volunteer Africa you can.  You don’t have to be a rock start to do it, or even anywhere near famous or rich.  There are so many volunteer programs out there you can take part in that will let you travel and work in exchange for contributing your part.  If you don’t mind the noise and hassles of airport cargo handling, there are cargo planes that also reserve a certain number of seats for passengers which offer cheap fares.  Of course cargo handling planes are being put under heavy scrutiny these days and you have to be prepared to fly with minimal luggage and observe some stiffer restrictions.  But the cheap fares are often worth the hassles.

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