Though the burning desire of Beatrice Saah, as a kid, to become a professional nurse in future was aborted, because she was forced into marriage by her selfish uncle, the 40-year-old widow still wants to acquire a certificate that she can use to acquire a job. Narrating her ordeal in an exclusive interview with the Upper East File, Madam Saah said it started when she lost her father in 1983. She was then in the Adakura Continuation Middle School Form 2. Before the tragic death of her father, Adogapale Adongo, who had been transferred from A-Lang Company in Kumasi as a Chief Cook to Bolgatanga, Beatrice was a Class Five pupil at the Bushein Primary School in Kumasi, where she started her education in 1975. She then continued her education at the Beo Primary School at Zuarungu, a suburb of Bolgatanga. It was upon her completion at the Beo Primary School that she gained admission into the Adakura Continuation Middle School, where soon after she was forced into marriage. While at her so-called husband's house, Beatrice said she wrote a letter to her uncle to come and take her home to continue her education, but he refused. As the days passed by, Beatrice lived with a heavy heart in her supposed husband's house against her will. In her attempts to find solution to her predicament, she ran from her husband's place, Dakiu, to Bawku, where she put up with her aunt for some years. She later returned to her uncle's house. While staying with her uncle, she continued to plead with him to allow her go back to school, but that never yielded any result, and she later got married to one Robert Saah, a Fire Service Officer. According to her, Mr. Saah was very cooperative, and so when she requested to go back to school, he agreed with her. By then she had two kids with him. Madam Saah said just when the man had found a school for her to continue, she picked seed, and when she was nine months pregnant, her husband passed away. Two weeks after the death of her husband, she delivered a baby boy. Soon after the death of her husband, the man's brother started maltreating her, beating her up without any provocation. Disturbed by the predicament of their daughter, her mother and her uncle asked to come and stay with them at Zuarungu, which she did. Madam Saah then gained a job at the Diplomat Restaurant in Bolgatanga as a cook, while staying with her mother and her uncle. Latter on, she rented a room in Bolgatanga, where she stayed with her three children. She said she later realised that her job as a cook was too demanding, so much that she could not take proper care of her children, as she went to work as early as 6:30 a.m. and closed as late as 10:00 p.m. The widow said she then went into petty trading, but that did not yield her any dividend, so she stopped and went into rice and maize buying and selling until her church (Baptist) employed her as a Day Nursery teacher. Presently, Beatrice is a cleaner at the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council. She told the Upper East File that it was out of the little savings she made from all her trading ventures, working as a cook, teaching and cleaning, that she had been able to pay her children's school fees. The first child, Miss Florence Saah, has just completed Bolgatanga Girls' Senior High School (BOGISS) in the recent West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations (WASSCE). Beatrice was grateful to the former Member of Parliament (MP) for the Bolgatanga Central Constituency, Mr. David Apasera, for assisting her pay Florence's admission fees, when she gained admission into BOGISS. If God wills, the second child, Susana Saah, would complete the Sacred Heart Junior High School in April 2010, while the third, Emmanuel Saah, is now in the St. George's Primary School Class Five. In spite of all these abuses against Beatrice, she took the boldest step and sat for the 2009 Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE). Though she admitted the examination was quite though for her, her trust was in the Lord to see her through. Sounding very religious, Madam Saah said, "when I entered the exams hall and saw my index number, I sat down and wrote on my table, 'Have faith in God'." When asked why she decided to write the exams, and what she intends doing with the certificate? The widow replied, "I just want to get a certificate so that I may get a better job to take care of my children." With the high conviction that she would make it to the tertiary level when their results are released, she has already started buying some of the necessary things she would need at school. Madam Saah made a passionate appeal to religious bodies, non-governmental organisations, philanthropists, and everyone touched by her pathetic situation, to help her give her children a good education, so that they would not suffer what she was going through. From the beginning of this widow's life story to the end, shows clearly that where she finds herself today is no fault of hers. Rather, her childhood desire, dream and ambition of becoming a professional nurse were shut down by her selfish uncle. There are so many 'Beatrices' today, whose stories have not been told, but this particular story has been told in black and white. The question now is, what will you do to ensure that her kids get quality education, as she is struggling to do? Upper East File, therefore, believes that you can do a lot, and there is no better time to do that but, now! Source: Upper East File