https://www.facebook.com/bbcnewspidgin/videos/889299097942484/

The environmental impact of Ghana’s “galamsey'” gold mining is something everyone talks about, but what often slips from public consciousness is the psychological impact on young galamsey children left behind by Chinese miners. Galamsey is a local Ghanaian term that means to “gather and sell them” referencing the illegal mining trade.

When Chinese miners come to Ghana, many of them fathered children with local women while working and living in the West African country, BBC Pidgin reported. Once the government began cracking down on the illegal mining, however, the Chinese miners fled, leaving their racially-mixed children behind.

What then becomes of their lives? What kind of healthcare do they receive? And how do they fare without their fathers?

BBC Pidgin reporter Favour Nunoo traveled through Ghana to speak with some of these abandoned children to get a better idea of their experience.

*The above video is in Pidgin, a grammatically simplified form of communication between two groups who don’t share a common language.