“It always seems impossible, until it is done.”
These are the words Nelson Mandela best describes a young and self-motivated female bus driver Amira Nana Agyeman.
Amira Nana Agyeman, a Senior high School graduate, defied the odds as well as social and physical constraints to acquire a bus-driving license F.
Her story is one of perseverance, determination, and courage.
Growing up in a Zongo community, with a single parent mother in a low-income level household is a herculean task.
Amira Agyemang being the last of her parents’ eight kids, had to support her family by selling sachet water and sugar cane.
When life got tough, Nana Agyemang made plans for ambitious plans to travel to the Arab countries to seek greener pastures after a friend introduced her to an agent.
However, the struggles of immigrants deterred her from traveling overseas to seek greener pastures which was very much fancied by her peers at that time.
Amira Agyemang, who struggled to find a place to call home often spent the night with a friend in a single room. There were also nights without food. Still, she opted to train as a bus driver
As fate would have it, Amira Nana Agyeman came across an advertisement for the training of bus drivers by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ Germany) in partnership with the Government Technical Training Center [GTTC].
She says she had fears about her enrolling in the training project due to her physical appearance.
However, she just decided to give it a shot, and after eight months, Nana Agyemang is a holder of a bus driving license F.
During the training period, Nana Agyemang sold knick-knacks in her neighborhood to survive.
Unfortunately after their training, Nana Amira Agyemang and her colleagues, are yet to be employed by ‘Aayalolo‘ the Bus Rapid Transport System introduced by the Ghana government in 2016 despite being trained by the GTTC.
Despite acquiring the license and training certificate, Nana Amira Agyemang is yet to drive an Aayalolo bus.
“Government has not yet employed us after completing the training; we were a lot of women under the women bus driving project. No allowance was given, but for me as long as it was skills training, I loved it and was happy. Although I am worried, I thank God for going through successfully, and my family is so proud.”
Still, she wants to use her story to inspire females, especially single mothers not to feel limited by their challenges.
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By: Jude Mensa Duncan/citinewsroom.com/Ghana
