Broken Chain
Episode 1
She gave all she had, her maximum strength and energy. As she looked up to God to give her more strength as she delivers her first child. The midwives kept encouraging her to keep pushing till the baby comes out. It was not an easy task.
Her whole body was sweating as she couldn’t take it anymore. She wanted to give up now. Somehow, she had carried this baby for more than 9 months. To be specific, 11 months now. This made it difficult for her even more. She pushed and kept on pushing. It was taking longer than usual. Her strength and energy were just fading away.
Adjoa almost gave up on God as she could no longer endure the pain. Comparing the pains she was going through labor now to what she has been through in life, was practically the same. She didn’t even know the father of the child she was carrying. She grew up in the streets of Accra under hard conditions and cruel nature of unscrupulous men who took advantage of homeless and voiceless young girls like Adjoa.
Adjoa was not born in the streets, however all this happened after the death of her mother. She was then adopted by her Auntie, that’s her late mother’s younger sister. After a petty mistake Adjoa did, that is when she stole GHC 2 out of her Aunty’s purse to buy food out of hunger, she was caught and beaten severely with coated wire, when she couldn’t take it any longer, she ran out of the house. Her Aunty dared her not to come back or she was going to skin her alive if she did. Out of fear and as young as she was, she never returned again.
She was then just 11 years old. The streets became her home, she moved from one place to the other in search of food and shelter. When the rains came, her only solace was either a roofed uncompleted building, or kiosk nearby. This exposed her to a lot of dangerous people who frequently abused her sexually either in exchange for food or shelter.
The only thing that kept her going was these last words her mother told her during her last days before she passed away “Never forget the love of God”. As young as she was the love of God only meant that God is keeping her alive.
Now that she is 16 years, for no reason, she just kept on believing in God, not that God had actually done anything beyond the extraordinary for her but for the fact that she had hope and life.
This was the moment she went through the most difficult time in her life. Where she was raped by a gang during one of her stay in the kiosk. She noticed she was pregnant barely 2 months after. Now, for a young girl like Adjoa to be pregnant created the impression that she sleeps around with men to earn money. This notion made it difficult for people to even help her anymore.
Her struggles just began. On the ninth month when she was expected to deliver, somehow it never came to pass and so did the tenth month until the eleventh month. People thought, she was even cursed and the baby she was carrying may have already died in her womb.
When finally she was in labor, no one offered to help her, until this young man who happened to be driving by heard her cry from the kiosk where she was. Out of curiosity, he went and found Adjoa in labor. Without thinking twice, he helped her into his car and quickly drove her to the hospital.
The news was no different, she was still in pain, then finally the moment came. She pushed harder. That was the time, a new child was born. But not all were right. There was no cry, no body movement. The room was filled with silence. Adjoa rested on her back asking to hold the new born baby. But the nurse who was holding the baby didn’t look happy.
To be continued
