Braving the odds through education, the success story of Ms Afua Amponsem

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Accra-Ghana, Dec. 10, GNA – The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a universal call to action for all United Nations member states for a better world for all, says education is a life changer therefore all barriers must be removed to make it accessible to all by 2030.
The global call acknowledges that “disability is not inability” and therefore for inclusiveness, all forms of barrier and impediment on the way of vulnerable persons such as Persons Living with Disabilities (PWDs) must be removed, and concessions made to ensure they have access to education and empowerment to be able to leave independent and meaningful lives.
In spite of this recognition and a call to global action, many PWDs have no access to education due to their mobility challenges and the fact that many countries such as Ghana have no institutionalized facilities tailored to suit their conditions. This has rendered many persons with disabilities dependent on others or begging for alms on the streets to make ends meet.
However, some have been able to brace all the odds and taken their destinies into their own hands to stand out and one of such persons is Ms Efua Kyere Amponsem, who despite her severe mobility challenge has graduated from the All Nations University in Koforidua, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Human Resources Management and plans to pursue higher degrees to serve as an example to others.
Ms Amponsem, became crippled at the age of nine after a short illness. Her ability to go through the ladder of education to become a graduate was largely because she had a supportive family who understood education as the only turning point for her to be on her own in future and her sheer determination to brave all the odds, “many others with my condition have become liabilities to society, begging to survive on daily basis”.
A product of St. Roses Senior High School, one of the prestigious girls’ schools in the country, Ms Amponsem, in an interview with the GNA recalled that but, for her parents’ support, she could not have even gone through basic education because “it was difficult, at a point, I was always carried to and from school by my mother because there were no facilities to contain people like me”.
When she finally passed the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and had admission to St. Roses, “my parents were so worried, wondering how I could cope at such a high school and wanted me to change to a day school closed to our vicinity so they could support me, but I insisted that, I will go to the boarding school.”
“Life indeed at St. Roses as a boarder was difficult for me. I could not wake up and join the long queue to bathe. Everything was about time and rush and there was no way I could have made it without the support of my teachers and peers because there was no facility specially made for persons with disabilities, but I was not discouraged,” she bravely said.
She recounted that all facilities from the dining and Assembly halls, washrooms, classrooms, library, and the dormitories had no structures at least to aid a person like her, requiring the use of calipers and clutches to move about.
Now, working as an administrative Executive at the Mathew 25 House, an HIV and AIDS care center and as a government appointee at the New Juaben South Municipal Assembly, Ms Amponsem, has made a passionate appeal to government to put in place systems and measures to enhance education and empowerment of physically challenged persons to ensure that their disabilities would not be the basis for denying them education as well as an employment opportunity.
She has, therefore, called for the establishment of a Special School for Persons with Physical Disability or mobility challenge to facilitate the education and empowerment of especially, women and young girls with such conditions.
Also, the chairperson of the New Juaben South’s Ghana Society for the Physically Disabled (GSPD) said distance and structure were critical for persons with physical disabilities and a special school with facilities tailored to suit their conditions to be able to break the barriers impeding their development and progress in life was imperative.
She mentioned for instance the school for the Deaf and the school for the Blind as classic examples of special schools that had been tailored to fit their conditions such as the use of braille and sign languages adding that, “people with blindness and hearing impairment are able to go far in education because of this special schools tailored to meet their specific needs.”
People with disabilities suffer a lot of discrimination and stigma because of their failure to go to school or learn a trade to gain the necessary requirements to be able to do decent work to survive.
She disclosed that in 2016, after her graduation from the University, she applied severally for a job, but to no avail due to her condition. She recalled that after the interview with an establishment, she was told that she performed creditably than all the other applicants but due to her condition, they could not give her the job, even though she qualified, describing it as unfortunate and the height of all discriminations against people with disabilities or physically challenged persons.
She said it was unfortunate that 15 years down the line since the disability act was passed, nothing had been done to implement the guidelines meant to give PWDs the necessary support and leverage in society.
She called on parents with children with some form of disability to support them through education, noting that, “but for my parents who are educationists, I won’t have come this far.”
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one-billion people or 15 percent of the world’s population, experience some form of disabilities and persons with disabilities are more likely to experience adverse socio-economic outcomes, such as less education lower levels of employment and higher poverty rates.
This may increase their vulnerabilities through inadequate access to education and health care, unsafe working conditions, a polluted environment and lack of access to safe water and sanitation.
UNICEF’S comprehensive statistical analysis indicates that 240 million children with disabilities around the world, one out of 10 children with disabilities worldwide are deprived of health, education, and protection.
In Ghana, the 2020 Population and Housing census estimates that over six million Ghanaians are living with some form of disability across the districts and regions in Ghana and for lack of education and empowerment many of them have no sustainable livelihoods.
Reverend Monsignor Bobby Benson, a Catholic Priest and Founder and Director of the Mathew 25 House, employed Ms Amponsem based on her courage and competence and overlooked her situation to encourage parents of such children to send their wards in such situation to school and entreated organizations not to why away from employing PWDs who have braved all odds to acquire skills for employment.
Whiles admitting that employing PWDs require some measures and adjustments to facilitate their movements especially those with mobility challenge, it is imperative that government must be committed to the implementation of the disability law to ensure that such adjustments were made to remove all impediments on job opportunities as well as empowerment.