Kato queen under undertakes philanthropic work

After ascending the stool in 1989, she realised the negative impact of the low standard of living of the people, their high dependency rate, lack of parental guidance, among others; so she engaged herself in capacity building for women in her community.

She, therefore, provided vulnerable and neglected children with temporary shelter in her palace and also helped them to go to school.

With the help of the stool elders, she has been able to take care of about 70 deprived and underprivileged children using her palace as their abode, although traditionally, this is not allowed.

Currently, she says there are eight children with two foster parents in her palace who are not only fed and educated but also catered for medically.

The children are often taken out for excursions to expose them to industrial and commercial activities in the country and some of her beneficiaries are now on their own while others are under apprenticeship.

To help reduce rural-urban migration in Kato, Nana Afia created awareness on the disadvantages of rural-urban migration and between the period of 1989 to 2008, rural-urban migration in the area reduced greatly through her efforts. 

“The youth of Kato in the Berekum Municipality used to migrate a lot to the cities to seek greener pastures until I intervened, by encouraging them to engage in farming and other vocational activities, I have gone all out to give personal donations as working capital for some of them to be self-reliant,” she said. 

Today, a lot of the youth are successful farmers and tradesmen. “Others have acquired hair dressing skills, through my own good efforts.”

To ensure that the youth do not forget their culture, Nana Afia formed the Otwaakwan Performing Arts at her palace in 2004, which is an academy for the youth interested in cultural practices through drama, drumming and dancing. 

“This programme is organised for an hour after school on Fridays.  Poetry recitation, appellations and songs are taught in both foreign and local languages.  Topics cover respect for authority, positive peer influence, responsible behaviours, personal achievements and ambitions, puberty rites and need for sexual purity before marriage,” she added.

The children, she says, use drama as a source of entertainment and education on pertinent societal and national issues and this, according to her, has brought respect and seriousness to them as resource persons come all the way from the Kumasi Cultural Centre as well as other traditional leaders to take them through Ghanaian and African cultural practices.

She also coordinated the launching of educational campaign programmes for owners of the various vocations in the area on the need to train some of the youth for vocational skills acquisition and at the moment, many of the youth have acquired various vocational skills and are on their own, some engaging in hair dressing, poultry farming, goat and sheep rearing, among others. 

Through her efforts, about 60 women have been taught how to enhance their income generating capacities by acquiring marketing skills.  Some of the areas covered were kenkey production, which is a traditional trade of women in Kato over decades; the hygienic way of operating local “chop bars” and basic food processing; marketing strategies and the habit of saving money in the bank. 

With support from resource persons from GTZ, the women are given technical advice and some are also given seed money to start small-scale businesses on their own and this, according to her, has helped the needy and deprived persons in the community.

Over the past 15 years, Nana Siraa-Ababio has catered for the education of 10 vulnerable and needy children whose ages range from six to 10 years at the primary school level.  At the senior high school level, five children have graduated through her financial and philanthropist support while, currently, 10 senior high school students are enjoying scholarships in different schools in the region.

To ensure that the people were in good health, Nana Siraa-Ababio has intensified public education on the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) for the people to appreciate the need to register with the scheme.

The campaign resulted in most of the people registering willingly. She also used her personal money to register those who could not afford to pay the premium due to financial difficulties at the initial stages of the scheme and today, she has registered 10 vulnerable and needy families.

Nana Siraa-Ababio also advocates for good parenting and child care, while she also educates the youth and the elderly through talks, symposia and seminars on issues confronting the society.

Through her instrumentality, the Berekum Queen’s Foundation was formed and with the support of the World Bank (Civil Society Fund) and Centre for Development Partnership (CDP), Nana Siraa-Ababio has also sensitised over 80 queens and hundreds of women and children in four districts in the Brong Ahafo Region on good sanitation practices.

Her challenge, she says,  is the construction of a centre for her project. According to her, she has secured a 22-hectre land to develop into a home to serve as a permanent shelter and skills training centre for her NGO and, therefore, welcomes any individual, groups, commercial entities and philanthropists to help her realise her dream and also welcomes any financial assistance to help pay the school fees for the children under her care. 

Story by Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho