May 28, 2001
Posted to the web May 27, 2001

Nigeria to Ghana: the Story of a Teenager
Ayesha, who comes from Nigeria, is now just 16.

In 1996 she lost both parents when she was studying in Primary Class Six. So she had to abandon school because there was nobody to help her continue her education.

"After the death of my parents, I stayed with a woman in our neighbourhood. The woman saw me as a slave and maltreated me, but as I had nowhere to go I had to endure the pains. I stayed with her for two years. A man who had seen the maltreatment I was going through came to my rescue, by taking me from the woman's house. He gave me some money and advised me to travel to Ghana where he said I could get a job."

Ayesha arrived in Ghana in 1998. She spoke only Hausa and English, and for this reason communicating with many people was very difficult. She says she did not know anybody in Ghana and had no place to live, except on the street. "I was sleeping at different places almost every night, because people sacked me from wherever I slept for a night," she noted.

Ayesha has learnt to speak fluent Fante. She says she joined some other street girls to become a porter and this earned her some money for food each day. She said she found a spot at Dansoman, a suburb in Accra, and slept there for some time before she moved to the Kaneshie market, where she joined some street girls who were sleeping there.

"In the mornings I used to roam about in the city hoping to get a job, and returned to the market in the afternoon when most housewives came for shopping. One day while roaming about I passed through the street in front of the Catholic Action for Street Children (CAS) - an NGO supported by UNICEF. A man there called me. He talked to me about the centre and encouraged me to be there," she said.

She said after her encounter with the CAS staff, she started going to the centre and has done that for the last two months. CAS runs classes for children to learn to read and write. The centre also has skill-training programmes in dressmaking, hairdressing and pottery. The classes run between 7.00 and 9.00 a.m. daily, and Ayesha joins in the skill- training programmes. "Now I can make a dress if the design is cut for me. Maybe after some time I can do the cutting and sewing myself," she says.

But despite the progress she is making in the dressmaking programme, Ayesha still wants to go to school. Unlike other girls at the centre, who are being sponsored by some institutions and therefore are given some money and accommodation, she has to feed herself and sleep on the street. "After leaving the centre after classes, I go back to Kaneshie to work as a porter before I can have some money for food. And because I can't hire any room, I sleep in the market in the company of other girls."

She prays for some intervention to help her continue her education and get her off the street.

Ayesha wants to stay in Ghana, but wouldn't like to remain a street girl. "I was pushed onto the street by the untimely death of my parents. But I hope a Good Samaritan would come my way some day and help me to continue my education and became gainfully employed. To stay on the street is very risky, but because I have no choice, I am compelled to stay there. God should help me," she says.