‘Don’t ridicule childless women’
Nana Konadu Agyemang
4 minutes read
22 years of tears
She recalled that her inability to conceive for two decades caused society, mainly people close to her and some church members, to subject her to constant ridicule, both in private and in public.
She stated that to overcome such hostile ordeal, she cried day and night to God to give her a child, a prayer that strengthened her to draw closer to God.
“For years, people did not only give up on me but they also insulted me both in public and private; but in spite of all that, I never allowed people’s attitudes towards me to ruin my happiness,” she recounted.
God has honoured me
The happy-looking mother recounted; “There were times when people in my own church accused me of using my money to buy shoes and not using it to take care of any child. However, people close to me know the number of children I take care of.”
To limit the incessant embarrassment she faced from close friends and society in general, she desisted from disclosing her worries to people, saying; “Man will only listen to your concern but will turn around to laugh at you and spread rumours about you.”
She, however, was full of gratitude to God for making it possible for her to conceive and deliver a baby she described as “a beautiful, healthy and extraordinary child”.
Nasty dawn preacher
Barima Twinin recalled that he went home one day and found his wife weeping uncontrollably after a dawn preacher had used a megaphone to preach about women who had exchanged their wombs for ‘juju’ to build big hotels.
“My wife cried for days and told me that what the preacher said did not bother her but the use of a megaphone to cast insinuation to the hearing of her neighbours disturbed her the most,” he explained.
He described such conduct as unfortunate, given the fact that many people knew how he and his wife began his hotel business from scratch.
“Today, God has blessed me to pay all the loans I took to put up my hotels and we now need to do more expansion,” he stated.
Be compassionate
According to him, a life of childlessness caused women considerable grief, a challenging period that required society to rather show more compassion and love towards them instead of “pointing accusing fingers at them”.
“Conceiving a child is a gift from God so it is disheartening when society, particularly dawn preachers, accuse childless women of exchanging their wombs for riches and call them names,” he added.
“Such stereotype and mistreatment hurt badly and dampen the spirits of women who, through no fault of theirs, remain childless,” he said.
Dedicating the baby to God and the church, Barima Adjei Twinin noted that prior to having their child, he and his wife visited various hospitals where doctors informed them that they had no medical condition that should prevent them from having a child.
