Afishetu’s Journey: From barefoot schoolgirl to district assemblywoman

I started school late, at age thirteen. It was very difficult to relate to other students since I was the oldest person in the class. Whenever I made a mistake the other students would laugh at me.

Furthermore, I was always falling behind in my lessons. I lived with my aunt in the Karaga District of northern Ghana, and during harvest time – four months out of every year – I was removed from school to help my family with farming. Many times, I came close to dropping out of school as my parents could not take care of the fees. We were very poor. I was even going to school with bare feet. (more…)