We are struggling to stay alive – Family who lives on ‘kenkey water’

Gagging on the stench of stale urine is inevitable around the home of Esther Tetteh and her family.

The stench cannot be missed.

The 42-year-old, single mother, drags her body on her knees out of the dilapidated wooden kiosk, she shouts for her oldest son, 15-year-old, Okoh to help her sit in her wheelchair.

The day has begun and the family’s fervent prayer is to secure a meal for the day, even if it is a snack.

Esther lives with her five children, in a rickety kiosk, in Ngleshie Amanfrom, a suburb of Kasoa in the Central Region.

The family’s breadwinner, a 10-year-old, Michael Ashley, begs for alms on the street of Kasoa.

On a good day, he makes GHC10, and the family feast.

“I send him to beg for alms in order to feed the family, I cannot work due to my condition, he is the only one that goes to beg because the others feel embarrassed,” she said.

Esther was not born physically challenged; she lost her limbs to domestic violence.

“When my last daughter was 5 months old, I had a quarrel with my baby-daddy and in the cause of the confrontations, he pushed me and I broke my leg” she recounted.

It has been six years and Esther’s hope of ever walking again has been dashed.

“I could not report him to the police or the doctors when they asked. I did not want him arrested, and also because he apologized and got me this wheelchair. I wish I could work to take care of my children,” she said.

Edmond Ashley, a 45-year-old father of Esther’s children works as a cleaner at a Hospital in the Central Region.

He has abandoned his family.

“Though we are not married, he is the father of all my five children and we lived together as a family but since I lost my legs six years ago, he has been in and out of our life,” she said.

Esther Tetteh before losing her legs sold empty water sachet and metal scraps. She could make GHC50 a day.

At some point, she sold tabletop provisions but now she lives on the benevolence of strangers.

“We are struggling to survive day after day, my sisters use to help me but they stopped, I guess it is not easy for them also” she added.

On days when luck runs on them, the family sleeps on ‘kenkey water” from a neighbor, sometimes for a week.

Esther’s children include; 15-year-old twins (a boy and a girl), a 13-year-old, son, a 10-year-old daughter, and a 6-year-old boy.

Due to financial constraints, the twin boy and his 10-year-old brother have dropped out of school.

The other three are made to stay home on days Esther could afford the GHC1 feeding fees.

“I could not afford uniforms and feeding money for them all, so when they opted to drop out, I could not say much. I do not have legs to chase them to school” she added.

Edmond, according to Esther, still comes home to demand sex and in an event of being refused assaults her.

“He has been coming here, often times drunk and demanding sex, when I refuse him he beats me, most recent one was during the Christmas break, it was the timely intervention of my neighbors that saved me,” she recounted.

The family lives by the mercies of the weather as the rickety wooden structure is a disaster waiting to happen.

“The wood and the roofing sheets are rotting, so on rainy days we stay up to salvage our belongings.“

Life for the family is in survival mode.

Crime Check Foundation (CCF) through its donors gave the family GHC500.

“This is unexpected, we are grateful for the gesture and we pray for God’s infinite blessings on you,“ she said beaming with smiles.

The Foundation is appealing to all benevolent individuals to support Esther in diverse ways.

Contact Crime Check on 024 207 4276 to support the physically challenged mother of six.