Silent screams...- Frontline story draft

I saw her with my naked eyes galloping along one of the main city streets chasing cars-taxis, private BMWs, “trotros”. When the traffic brought the cars to a stand still she briskly walked to a chosen car bringing her right hand out hoping to get money from the driver or passengers. She looked grubby, frail and hungry. Her fingers and nails clogged with dirt, her dress looked unwashed for weeks. When my eyes fell on her feet I realized one of her slippers was torn. Like her, many children wake up to find themselves on the street because of poverty.

As Aicha comes closer to my taxi she smiled revealing a yellowish set of tiny teeth that has not been brushed for weeks. When she spoke to me in the only line in the Twi Language that she knows “Ma mi sika” (Give me money) my nose was offended. I wondered where her parents could be. In our short conversation, she told me her name that she came from Niger. Language was a barrier to our conversation. She knew little English and Twi.

Before I could fish for coins in my purse for her, the green light was on and my cab flew away. My heart was swollen with anger. Holy anger- Why should a little girl of her age be on the street begging? Is it poverty? Is it illiteracy? Is it values? The more I ask myself these questions, the more exasperate I become. Should any reason be justified not to take proper care of children-feed them, cloth them and send them to school? Should there be a reason why children should be loitering on streets instead of studying in classrooms when they did not come into this world by themselves? Where are their parents and families? What went wrong? What can be done?

It was just a Monday 10am. A school day and hour. Aicha should be about 9. Her colleagues were in school and she was on the street. That was not the first time and she is not the only one either. Days after days, weeks after weeks and months after months, I have seen many of her age and size on the streets from different places begging for alms. Some children come with elderly physically challenged folks. Others are sent out alone and tasked to beg for alms. What is their future like without education in the 21st Century? How would they survive without education in a world that is growing with different global challenges of wide sizes, heavy weights and mountain Everest heights?

Like a film, my own childhood started unfolding:

My Genesis

As far as I remember, I was just about 6. I went to school sometimes. Sometimes I had to stay home and work on my grand father’s farm close to our house. My job was mainly to drive fowls that will pick the corn and millet seeds my grand father had sewed. Though I was too young to work on a farm, my figure was big enough to scare and drive fowls away. My grand parents had no education and knew little about the importance of education. Much as I wanted to be in school my voice was too tiny to heard let alone respected then. I wanted to be in school-to read, to calculate and to draw.

I remember admiring my class teacher very much the times I went to school. She spoke fluent English and I would tell myself, “one day I will be able to speak fluent English like Miss…I cannot remember the name now. She bought me “Kulikuli” the times I read very well in class.

My early homes

My Grandparents’ home was built with mud and roofed with thatch. There was no electricity, potable water nor tarred roads in our village. There was one school. No clinic. Occasionally nurses will come from somewhere to our schools and give us injection. I never liked that and always screamed!
I spent a lot of my time with my grand mom. We went to the river side to fetch water, the market to sell and the farm to harvest groundnut. I had friends in the community. We played together, plucked mangoes together, swam in the rivers, bathed sheep. There were times we just wandered in the bushes.
I had no idea where my father was though later I learnt I lost him. My Granny was to me my mother until the spell was broken one day-“your mother is in the City and will be here one day”.

The Exodus

As my mum and I sat in big bus to Accra I was filled with mixed feelings. I had a bond with my Grand mum and it was painful “running away” from her. We had to escape as my grandparents would not allow me to leave them for reasons best known to them. The journey to Accra was long but one that will give me a new life and destiny wrapped with it unique challenges…

Early life in Accra

I woke up one morning to realize I was alone. All alone. By myself. I was 10. I was to take care of myself spiritually, emotionally, physically, socially and economically and health wise whiles my mum as my mum travelled from one city to another as a trader. I felt lonely, neglected and wished things were different. I knew my mother did not wish to leave me but she had no choice -. She was a single mother –a widow.
Though I did not feel the heat of a gunshot, nor the edge of a sharp knife stabbing me then I felt the heat of neglect, the stung of lack of parental love and care because of poverty. My younger brother was in the village and I was yet to meet and to know my elder siblings. That is another chapter of my life story.
Night after night, beads of sweat formed on my forehead without permission. It was hot and stuffy. Sometimes cold and silent. I One night I woke up. Sat up and told myself-poverty is not good. This situation has to be changed and this change must begin with me!

Teenage years.
It was not until after Senior High School that I became actively involved in issues that affected children, youth and women. I had experienced and seen many young people beaten by poverty and lack of education. Many young people have dreams were threatened by those same two factors.
University education was challenging for me without a proper source of income but it was worth staying at University.

Accra Today

As I walk through the streets of Accra today there are many sights and sounds but the ones that I cannot just hear or see walk away are the sounds of children, youth and women who are poverty stricken.
I see many children in the streets-beggars, petty traders, some Ghanaians most foreigners. There are young, hungry, and frail with no education nor proper homes. I wonder where their families are what their future will be. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Child spells out clearly the fact families, communities and nations are responsible for the well being of every child.
I see many young women thronged and chocked the city in their quest to escape poverty and its related myriad challenges. Many are abused and exposed to many dangers in the city because of poverty as some do not have homes to live in.

We may not as a country experienced knives stabbing us or guns searing hearts nor even war scattering many but poverty and its related complications continue to sting many young souls and displace many families as many people try to break the poverty circle in their families .Scores of women have and still struggle and go through hard times to raise and educate their children. Many girls braved and still brave the storm of poverty to make it themselves who they are today.

The way forward -Education as a development tool

I believe there is a correlation between literacy/education and Development as education harness people’s potential, enriches a country’s human resources and is the key to an individual and community development.
Most people who are educated take initiatives to contribute effectively to development and cultivate attitudes to the break poverty circle in families and communities by engaging in income generating activities.
When people’s lives are improved through education and opportunities, they are refined, trained with skills to contribute to the nation’s wealth. Many human resources are being wasted because of illiteracy and I strongly believe that until we wake up and take responsibility of making sure that every child born on earth gets the chance to go to school we would be digging holes in our pockets. Education should be free and accessible to every child on earth.

My Vision, My efforts, My motivation

I look forward to seeing a Ghana and a world where every child is in school and is properly taken care of. A country where women are assertive and financially independent-being able to generate their own income in order to survive and support their own families. I believe we can achieve this through quality education for all.
I believe I have a role to play. In my desire to help; I have set up a foundation-GREIGHT FOUNDATION with the mission of empowering children, youth and women in communities through mentorship and education.
As efforts to empower children and young people from difficult backgrounds to go to school and realize their dreams,

-I mobilize a group of friends and we visit a particular community (Obrachire) to encourage the children/young people to believe in their dreams through empowerment and self development workshop trainings.

-Currently I am mobilizing funds from friends to support needy children in schools to help pay their tuition; buy books and some stationery. For instance there are two students who would be going to Senior High School this September.

For a long term development plan

• I am working on connecting children and young people from difficult backgrounds with their peers and other people who would love to mentor them by encouraging them to hold on to their dreams.

-I hope to be able to set up a resource centre (A community library, a computer laboratory, a career and counseling Service Centre) as a long term development plan for one particular community.

My hope and motivation is from the voices I heard sometime ago. The voices still ring like a bell in my ears like I heard them just yesterday. Courageous and visionary voices:

“I want to be a Lawyer”. “I want to be a medical doctor”. I want to be the first Ghanaian Female President”. My heart swelled with pride as I heard the young voices in a village that is just two hours drive from the city-Obrachire. Some Friends and I had stormed their community to challenge them to dare to dream in empowerment workshop training -“Who am I? Where am I going to? How do I get there?

The audience was young people between the ages of 10 and 28 .These voices give me HOPE and motivation. Though their conditions are not perfect they are daring to dream like I did some years ago. These voices and dreams pushed baby GREIGHT FOUNDATION out.

I believe we all have a role to play by sowing a seed in some one’s life. I am who I am today because some people sowed some seeds in my life some time ago in the form of words of encouragement and support. I want to do the same thing. I want to leave this world knowing that a life breathed easier because I lived.
For the girls who have dreams; who scream silently in secret corners for a better life-hold on to your dreams. A new era is here-where women have been connected to help each other realize their dreams through collective voice and resources.