A 60-year-old woman with clubfoot, who has been farming for 15 years, is appealing to the public to assist her to establish a new business as she prepares to retire.
Madam Abdulai Hawa, mostly referred to as Iron Lady, owns 4 acres of maize, 2 acres of groundnut, 3 acres of cassava, 2 acres of beans and an acre of okro farm at Salaga in the Savannah Region.
She rides 3 kilometres to her farm on a manual tricycle, a routine she explained, is taking a toll on her health because of old age. The tricycle is in bad condition and requires a lot of manpower ride it.
“The work is stressful. I have to take medicine everyday to be able to sleep after the day’s work,†Iron Lady told 3news.com.
She said age is catching up to her, the reason she wants to quit her farming job for a new business that will not require a lot of physical activity.
Though she said she makes money from her farming, “my worry is, I’m 60 years and going old day by dayâ€.
Although Iron Lady said she hires people to spray her farm for her, she does the weeding all by herself.
Madam Hawa was born with clubfoot, a common foot abnormality, in which the foot points downward and inward. She has since childhood been living with the condition and stigmatisation.
As a believer of ‘disability is not inability’, she did not allow her disability to pin her down but did all things possible to fend for herself and family.
At an early age, she crawled half a kilometre to school daily and mostly came back home with sores from her crawling but that did not discourage her from pursuing her dream.
In 1973, Iron Lady completed Form 4 at the Salaga Middle Day School after enduring years of stigmatisation mostly from her colleagues at school, she recounted.
After Form 4, Madam Hawa said she enrolled as an apprentice to learn dressmaking, but she had to leave due to poor eyesight.
Eventually, she ended up as a petty trader, selling locally made liquid soap.
Though not married, Madam Hawa had three children but lost one of them four years ago.
Her son, Mahama Yussif, who is a mason, says he is worried about the work her mother does and would have loved to set her up but he does not have the financial muscle.
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He is, however, hopeful there will be better days for her mother.
Iron Lady’s daughter is pregnant and lives with the man who impregnated her.
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