A young 18 year old girl has recounted her life as a head porter popularly called “kayayo”.
The young girl called Mumuni Jahara is a native of the Upper West Region.
According to her, her family’s abject poverty pushed her to move from the upper west region to Accra after her basic school education in search of greener pastures.
She joined her older sister to live on the harsh streets of Accra.
In an interview with Zionfelix uncut, Jahara outlined the unfavorable conditions she was subjected to on the streets on Accra.
She said she had to sleep in front of shops at night and had to battle with mosquitoes. In her words, “mosquitoes were like houseflies and malaria was a common occurence”.
Jahara added she faced lots of hardship because her paltry daily earning of 5 cedis wasn’t enough to sustain her and her family back in the Upper West Region.
Luck shined on the young girl when she was scouted to be a part of a reality show called “A Jewel On The Streets”. The show is aimed at transforming the lives of porters in a more unique way.
The reality show which is a brainchild of Marvelin House Limited seeks to transform the lives of these young porters by providing education, professional skills and other mentoring opportunities to help them to better themselves and attain new and lasting socio-economic freedom.
Jahara’s dream is to be a journalist and she is positive this opportunity will take her a step towards achieving just that.