THE GENESIS OF PAIN

Samira was a young lady who lived in a remote area in the northern part of Ghana , as a young lady growing up with less privilege , it was a challenge she had to endure; she was determined to eradicate poverty in her family and community . With this life changing dream, she decided to take her education seriously even though it was facile she never gave up, her parents engaged in farming since that was the only dominated occupation in the northern Ghana. Hajia Aisha, Samira' s mother enrolled her daughter and her younger siblings in the community day school which was of poor condition and less facility, yet that did not deprive Samira of having a dream.

Punlugu basic school and it's management adored Samira for her incredible academic performance which made her one of the best pupils in community day school . In spite of her academic prowess Hajia Aisha and Alhaji Shaibu found difficulties in paying Samira's tuition, this sometimes affected her studies .

The academic calendar is almost ending , Samira like many other children were very happy to stay home since the rainy season was fast approaching because this period was literally considered as cash out season for all residents .

Schools have all closed and the rainy season is here, most farmers have started ploughing and sowing their seeds and plants . During this period all the villagers including children engage in farming activities to earn some amount of money.

Samira and her brothers Azeri and Azeez usually go to mallam Raham's farm to assist in some activities, when the day grows he gives them some few Cedis.

This is how the children help their parents to cater for their education.

Soon all schools had reopened and children had also started preparing for their tuition and other curricula activities .

For the the beginning of the term, most pupils were still in the farms trying to get money for other expenses which was very had to come by .

Samira had to work for some few weeks before going back to school since she used the money earned to pay for her siblings tuition, three weeks passed and Samira has finally gathered some money for herself.

Since she's been late in reporting to school, her mates have been taught ahead of her and she needed to catch up as soon as possible, this was no big deal for her after all she's a fast learner and also dedicated to her studies.

This time round Samira has grown tremendously in her academics bagging the best student of the year award in her region however this achievement was short lived, few months after winning the the award , Hajia Aisha felt ill with a strange disease.

Oh sorrows! Her greatest support is down , her mother's health deteriorated rapidly meanwhile the family could not afford the cost of medical bills .

Hajia died leaving her kids motherless with their lazy father who did not really care much about his children .

Alhaji Shaibu change from his lazy attitude, Samira became a mother to her siblings ; this however was nothing easy for the young lady .

The whole situation was a hard one Samira making her unable to concentrate in her studies, her grades started falling soon she had to droup out due to financial difficulties.

Samira decided that she would have to work very hard in other to save up some money so she can return to school, early the following morning she woke up and worked from farm to farm to find menial jobs.

She searched for days but no farmer was ready to hire her on their farms since they started with workers and have spent a lot of money, so she went in to the forest and cut down some trees to sell as firewood for the "

"pito sellers " pito is a locally brewed beer made from millet and mostly seen in the northern parts of Ghana .

The firewood business was fetching some money yet not enough to pay for her siblings tuition but then it was enough to feed them .

Shortly her siblings joined her in the firewood business which made the work easier but brought problems upon problems following the stress and tiredness that caused her younger brother to fall sick with fever.

Her brother's fever was not severe but she couldn't leave them alone at the hospital therefore she had to forfeit work for a couple of days before resuming .

Days past and her brother got well and was discharged from the hospital , Samira resumed her firewood business but had lost a lot of customers in her absence making it difficult to make ends meet therefore she had to find other customers for her business, it was hard at the beginning but she did not give up and kept pushing, she even went as far as the next village in search of firewood buyers but to no avail so she decided that her siblings would go back to school as she continued to find other jobs .

This time her father had travelled to the nearest village to harvest corn in peoples farms in other to find something to feed his kids, this decision of his was somehow strange but the kids were impressed that after a long time their father has decided to do something for them.

Three months past but they had not heard anything about Alhaji Shaibu , their father who had travelled in search of job .

This bothered Samira so much that she vowed to that she'd do everything possible to cater for her siblings and see herself through school so that she'd one day become a doctor and save many lives in her community.

Information travelled that Alhaji Shaibu had gotten married to a widow in Mankarigu where he went in search of job , this news reached the children and they were very disappointed in their father for letting them down once again but then, Samira never lost hope.

This time she sent her siblings to their mother's family house and journeyed the southern part of the country in search for greener pastures since life in the city is better off.