30/08/2023
She asked, "What are you doing here and why are you standing by the bin?" Scared of getting into trouble with a trembling voice she responded "I want to get your bin and help throw the rubbish away"
Before this incident, little Afia had been feeding from the Ghana Commercial Bank's leftover food that was being thrown into the bin almost every day. That was the only place she could get good quality food to eat.
Little Afia was raised by an auntie who was an entrepreneur and therefore was engaged in all manner of enterprises among which included the preparation of alcoholic drinks, selling of fried yam &kelewele at the bus station, selling of pipe water and iced water, etc. Auntie therefore needed help in running all these businesses. Well, your guess is as good as mine, Little Afia became the little slave for all.
She only gets to eat when Auntie feels like it or is in a super good mood. Little Afia only got to eat when the customers who came to eat at her aunty's place graciously left her some leftovers. On days that there were no leftovers then the burnt food that can not be sold to customers is packed for her to eat.
Sometimes when she is super hungry she intentionally makes sure to burn some yam or plantain so it can be given to her to eat. But that also means she is ready for some slaps on the face for burning the food.
One day she was on her usual business when a worker from the bank called her to buy some of her water(selling iced water after setting up the yam business and local gin was her daily work). While selling the water to the woman she smelled this nice food aroma that kept her to keep on sniffing the aroma even after the sale of her water. A few minutes later, she saw the woman throw the leftover food into the bin behind the gate of the bank. Immediately she picked it up after no one was watching and wow, that was the best food she's ever had in her life.
She passed by the bank the next day and this time it was half a pie with so much meat and onions...the next day it was some donuts...and the next day and the next day until that day when she was asked why she was standing there.
Fast-forward, to little Afia after replying the woman took the bin and hurriedly went and emptied it, and came back with it and she was praised for being a good child. Littie Afia added the job of emptying(Zoomlion) work to her numerous un-ending chores. ......
Question. Was little Afia being a good child by emptying the bins as they thought so?
The answer is a big NO. She only needed food and the only place to get that food was from the bin so she did not care about what she had to do to get the food to survive.
There was never a place to call home that gave food or a place to sleep... for years she ate leftovers and slept under tables at the bus stations.
Today is Little Afia's birthday and when she was asked what she would want to receive as a birthday gift, she said "ALL I WANT IS FOOD FOR ALL THE LITTLE AFIAs WHO ARE HUNGRY LIKE I WAS YEARS BACK " The trauma of being hungry is something I do not wish for any child or anyone to experience for it can make one do the unthinkable she said.
We shall continue the story of little AFIA but if you're touched by this story and want to donate food to little Afia please send me a private message here on FB or WhatsApp number +233 (0)244463607.
Just so you know Little Afia runs the NGO called Oak Foundation & AP OAK ..An NGO & Social enterprise that aims to support youth and women in Education and to earn means through agribusiness to support their families and feed the nation.
Today with the help of organizations and individuals' support of our projects such as GIZ(German government) SNV HortiFresh(Netherlands ), KNUTSFORD University, University of Ghana , CTL Africa among others we have been able to support about 300 young people particularly women with training and startups to set up enterprises within agriculture and vocation while over 3000 have been mentored and supported in education. To read more please watch our Youtube channel or visit website using the links below: https://youtube.com/?si=P8R3fqUh6Io35Kwm
or visit our websites: https://oakfoundation.org/ And https://apoakltd.com/
It's a "ONE 5Kg bag of rice and A Bottle of oil Campaign" to donate to families struggling to feed their children
GOD BLESS YOU.
