THE FORGOTTEN WIDOW IN A WOODEN KIOSK

55 year old widow, Aunty Aba struggles to make ends meet from her food vending business that she does on credit and has made her to find shelter in an almost collapsed wooden kiosk because she is unable to rent a room.

The old widow narrates to crimecheckghana how she and her children were homeless after the demise of her husband until a benevolent individual offered her a wooden structure in a water log area to shelter her. Aunty Aba said her husband’s demise fifteen years ago has ruined her life as he was her only support. “My husband was a seaman so he had voyaged to Senegal to work but unfortunately contracted a disease and his colleagues brought him back home. I was home one day and I had a call from my husband’s friends that my husband had been admitted at the hospital but unfortunately he died that same day when I went to see him.” She said.

The poor mother of 3 said when her husband died her children were very young so she single handedly catered for them through school with her “kenkey” business. She said because of financial difficulties she has to do petty house chores for people and invest the money she gets into her food business. Aunty Aba said she managed to see her elderly son through to finish a Technical school but he has been struggling to get a job. “I made my son attend a Technical school for him to get some basic skills but after he had completed he has not been able to get a job to enable him assist me. I have to wash for people so that I can be able to re-pay the money for bags of corn which I took on credit to prepare the “kenkey”.” She said.

According to Aunty Aba, the almost collapsed wooden structure in which she finds shelter gets flooded each time it rains and because of that she has to raise a wooden bed to sleep on when the room gets flooded. She said the structure could collapse on her anytime soon as efforts to get the worn-out structure into shape has been in vain. “I have asked carpenters to repair the structure but it gets worse by the day so what I have to do is to vacate the structure before anything terrible happens.” She told crimecheckghana.

Crime Check Foundation, CCF through one of its group donors, Grace Church International in Kuwait gave the old widow Six Hundred Ghana Cedis as business capital.

Receiving the money, Aunty Aba blessed them for their kindness. “God bless you and grant you long life. May God restore the donation in double-fold. She prayed.

CCF is appealing to benevolent individuals and organizations to come to the aid of the poor widow in order to help her raise her living condition through business capital support and rent a befitting room for her.

CCF’s Charity Series is used to solicit support for famished individuals and families to gain livelihood.