God prepared me for this

I will not consider my first attachment to the then Accra Daily Mail as a coincidence, I now believe that God was preparing me for today/now

The news paper which was managed by Alhaji Haruna Atta and his wife Nana Yaa Agyemang, apart from giving me my first experience in journalism also taught me a life lesson that has kept going.

Nana Yaa (mum) as we affectionately called her use to edit our stories, she will walk to the newsroom holding the tables and chairs, but I did not for a moment think that there was something wrong with her.

She edited so well and corrected me when I had not been my best. On my last day of my attachment, I remember Nana Yaa advising me about life and she told me “You remind us of our daughter Aisha”.

Little did I know that Mum had an autoimmune disease that makes her disabled. I later heard this story when she was on TV one time to talk about autoimmune diseases.

Fast forward, I moved on, got permanently employed with the Ghana News Agency and I really enjoy journalism though it does not pay much.

From time to time, Mum (Nana Yaa) will call me and tell me to cover something for her. It was her organization ShareCare4U (www.sharecare4u.org/) an organization for people with autoimmune diseases.

One day Mum called me to visit the Disability Assessment centre and do a story on their dilapidated building which was not disability friendly, well, I did that and the centre was rehabilitated.

It was during the coverage of the opening of a centre for children with Cerebral Palsy that I met Farida Bewdei for the first time. I remember Farida read a speech, I was sitting at the back and it wasn’t so clear so when the programme was over, I went to get a copy but I did not speak to her.

I have covered ShareCare for a long time and I still enjoy covering that organization’s activities.

Mum, inspired me a lot, I did not know that God was preparing for me something.

I developed some very soft spot for people with challenges, especially those related to disability. I even celebrated my 29^th birthday with the Dzorwulu Special School, little did I know that God was preparing me for the Special Mothers Project (http://specialmothersproject.blogspot.com)

I was to give birth to a very special girl (Eyram) and today I advocate fully for children with Cerebral Palsy. ( I am smiling broadly)

It has not been an easy journey, there are times I still say, “Aaah God so of all things to advocate for, why Cerebral palsy” but you cannot imagine the joy and fulfillment when I am able to touch the life of a mother and child with cerebral palsy who otherwise lived without hope.

Along the line, way before I thought of marriage and child birth, I got trained in advocacy, I trained in the Netherlands, in the United States and Geneva via short training programmes for journalists, I did not know that God was preparing me for this

The title of my book “The Unexpected” will be launched soon, says it all. I had always pray for God’s will to be done in my life and I thoroughly believe that I am living according to God’s will.

If you ask what my inspiration is, I can only point you to the Joseph story in the bible.

I refuse to blame anything in my life on demons, witches etc, No, Never, they have no control over me. Everything that has happened in my life is to bring God's purpose for my life into fulfillment.

There are those who engage in self-pity and go around soliciting for funds to take care of themselves because they have a child with CP, I pray for them that God’s help them. There are those who exploit families with CP children.

Some pastors demand money from them to pray and heal their children, some health professionals charge exorbitantly for very little services rendered.

My wish is that these parents will not become desperate to fall for all these exploitation 

I now fully understand the scripture which says that, “…All the days ordained for me, not one of them came to being, without it being written in your book” Psalm 139v16.