Search
Close this search box.
GBC
GHANA WEATHER

How GBC Reporter solicited funds to help Septuagenarian Madam Afua Akoto

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
WhatsApp
Pinterest
By: Henrietta Afful

 

For a 70-year-old woman in the Ashanti Region, the saying that ‘dreams come true’ became real when GBC News paid a surprise visit to her. 

Madam Afua Akoto is a grandmother of two with no livelihood support, pension fund and monthly stipend to cushion her.  

The Government of Ghana introduced the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), a cash transfer programme for the extremely poor in society in 2008. However, Afua Akoto’s data has not been captured.  

Hustling, joggling from one job to another and doing menial jobs from dawn to dusk has been the only means of survival. With this daily struggle, Madam Afua Akoto is only able to get a few tubers of cassava to feed her family. When her strength fails her, the family goes without food. 

Broken pots, broken buckets, scattered dirty clothes, old trunks, dirty plates litter the compound of her dilapidated mud house.  

Her husband left her 40 years ago and she has never set eyes on him since the separation. Her two children also left for the city in search of supposed “better conditions” and have since not returned. Many times, Madam Afua Akoto is left to battle life alone.

Poverty, she says, has drained all her youthful juices.

Click On Video Attached

Saddled with the burden of taking care of two gifted grandchildren whose dreams are on hold, because they dropped out of school as a result of inadequate funds, and with no hope, her only wish was for a cup of tea and buff loaf before she passed on. 

However, GBC News was there to put smiles on her face and give her hope to live.  

Watch GBC News’ visit to Madam Afua Akoto

 

How the reporter, Beatrice Senadju met Madame Afua Akoto 

GBC’s Award-winning journalist and Features Reporter, Beatrice Senadju is the face behind this touching story from Dadiease that was aired on GBC News. 

Recounting her first encounter with Madam Afua Akoto, Beatrice in an interview on the GTV Breakfast Show said she travelled to the Atwea Mountains area to unravel the mystery behind the ‘Prayer Mountains’. As faith would have it, the person who helped her descend the mountains was a grandson of Madam Afua Akoto. 

Their conversations about his ability to manufacture miniature objects like a ship from used water bottles and helicopter form bamboo, led Beatrice and her team to the home of Madam Akoto.

 According to Beatrice, the Septuagenarian had returned from the farm.

 “When I looked at the surroundings, it gave me a picture of how poverty looked like and how it feels to be down there” , Beatrice sadly said.

The reporter said the way Madam Akoto went about her cooking, grating cassava with a grater and using her bare hands to scoop hot banku (a Ghanaian local dish prepared from maize and corn dough) from a pot on fire made her worry.

She said flushes of her encounter with Madam Akoto later in her hotel room, was a wakeup call. 

The news team met her absence on their second visit. Checks showed she had gone dumpster diving – scavenging for items such as usable clothing, cups and plates.

She said what broke the entire crew was when Madam Afua Akoto revealed that the clothes she wore were picked from a refuse dump. They made contributions to get her some items.

The reporter said the poor condition under which Madam Akoto lived, prompted her (Beatrice), to do the story and the result has been overwhelming.

Not only did her team provide Madam Akoto with her heart’s desire of having a cup of tea with buff loaf but Beatrice with support from friends and colleagues at work, who were touched when she shared snippets of her story on social media, donated cash and clothing to Madam Akoto.

The items included clothes, foodstuff, utensils and cash.

Madam Akoto, who was visibly shocked, when the news team paid her a surprise visit, expressed appreciation to the team for contributing to improve her standard of living. 

The highest point in her joy is the decent place of abode being put up by the team for the family. 

The project has stalled, due to inadequate funding and GBC is by this medium appealing to Philanthropists to donate to help her. 

Click To Watch Full Interview 

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

ADVERTISEMENT