Madam Abdulai Hawa, a 60-year old physically challenged single mother, who farms to cater for herself and children in the East Gonja district of the Savannah region, has received support following DGN Online report about her challenges.
Madam Hawa grows beans, maize, cassava, okro, and groundnut and has been farming for the past 15 years.
“I decided to go into farming and for the past 15 years, I have been farming to cater for myself and my children,” she told DGN Online recently.
She journeys on her tricycle which is in a very poor condition on rocky and bad roads for about 3km to her farm which is on the outskirt of the Salaga township.
“My tricycle is weak and it is very expensive fixing it. Any time it’s faulty like you saw we had to stop some couple of times to fix it,” she had bemoaned.
In view of her struggle, a kind hearted citizen, Joe Awuah Jr, decided to come to the aid of the physically challenged single mother.
Mr. Awuah , has purchased a brand new tricycle for madam Abdulai Hawa.
According to him, he was touched by the plight of the physically challenged woman and decided to assist her.
Madam Abdulai Hawa, who shared tears of joy upon receiving the tricycle, expressed her gratitude to Mr. Awuah Jr and DGN Online.
According to her, the donation was timely.
She says henceforth, she would not spend money on repairing her old tricycle but use the money for other things.
She lamented about her old age, adding that she takes medicine anytime she goes back home from the farm because she is weak and has bad eyesight.
“If I get support to expand my farm it will enable me to also employ more people and encourage them to venture into farming to enable them earn something to cater for their families,” she assures.
The Secretary of Persons Loving with Disability in the East Gonja municipality, Ewuntomah Wahid , thanked DGN Online for projecting the plight of Madam Hawa which has resulted in her getting some support from the public.
“We the persons living with disability , emotionally and spiritually this gift means a lot to us and we can only say that God richly bless all those who contributed for this gift our mother received”.
He appealed to other individuals, organizations to come to the aid of other persons living with disability who need such supports.
“It’s not that we like begging on the street no just that sometimes how to feed ourselves is a problem, so we call on organizations to come and equip us so that we can use that to be able to earn something to take care of our families”.
In Ghana’s capital Accra and other major cities like Kumasi, disabled persons like madam Hawa rely on begging for financial support on the streets to survive.
But madam Hawa is defying the odds to provide for herself and children.
The living conditions of persons with disabilities in Ghana is very challenging.
Despite government’s initiatives such as the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty(LEAP) program, physically challenged persons such as Madam Abdulai Hawa, continue to wallow in poverty.
Majority of them are not even aware of the disability fund, let alone access it.
By Eric Kombat , Salaga