Millions were held captivated by the touching story of 49-year-old Mary Addy on Wednesday, October 1, 2014 on the Super Morning Show on Joy FM.

Innocence ripped from her at the tender age of nine; a major transition cusp of her development to adolescence, Mary was defiled by a security officer at a school where she had gone to seek refuge after her guardian threatened to beat her.

Unable to speak of her painful ordeal to anyone around her, Mary’s thoughts turned to suicide. “I ran into the sea for the sea to take [drown] me,” she told Kojo Yankson, host of the Super Morning Show. Thankfully, Mary was rescued by some fisher folk and returned to her family.

Her ordeal was not over, however. Her custodian, who was also an aunt, subsequently branded her a witch and went to every length to force a confession from her, even going to the extent of taking her to a pastor to be “tied up and beaten” until she confessed to the imagined crime.

When her Aunt drove her out of her home on a Christmas day, Mary was forced to sleep in open spaces, sometimes perching in trees and public cemeteries. Once again, thoughts of suicide dominated her mind, this time with the intention “to punish my aunt for being so cruel to me”.

“I was so useless that even the word useless is too polite to use on me,” she voiced morosely.

Even as a fully grown adult, Mary’s chain of despair and anguish did not seem to end.

“My story is so pathetic…between me and ending my life was as thin as the thread…” she recounted.

Still, despite a series of disappointments in two separate relationships, she was blessed with two boys. When another thought to end her life, and that of her two boys, failed to materialize, Mary realised her job on earth was not over. For the sake of her children, she took her destiny into her own hands and determined to never again consider ending her life.

Years down the line, one of her two boys has completed the University of Ghana and is doing his national service while the other is a marketing student in a polytechnic.

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Success story

Mary picked up the broken pieces of her life and embarked on a campaign to save people from committing suicide. “I just want to tell somebody out there that life is worth living,” she said.

In 2011, Mary launched the Cultivating Minds Foundation to support and prevent “our pastors, our lawyers, our judges from committing suicide”.

“We neglect them but we find it so easy to buy coffins when they die," she noted with regret.

Her mission is simple: "I saved lives, I create awareness that suicide is preventable”.

Perhaps the story of one Francis Agyare, the man who was unlawfully detained for 14 years without trial, would not have been told if God had granted Mary’s wish of committing suicide. The man had been released in 2008 under the justice for all programme.

She said she met Francis at the point when he wanted to commit suicide by running onto the rail of a moving train. Having convinced him that he had better reasons to decide on life instead of death, Mary sought help for Francis through Sarah Ofori of Metro TV. Sarah used the story of Francis to produce a documentary which later attracted support for him to seek justice for the unlawful detention.

A Human Rights Court subsequently awarded GH¢200,000 damages to the 46-year- Francis Agyare following the breach of his fundamental human rights by the state.

Helping survivors

Mary now requests urgent help from organisations and individuals to support her Cultivating Minds Foundation. Her request to meet the Minister of Gender, Women’s and Children Protection, Nana Oye-Lithur, is yet to receive a response.

“I have written to Nana Oye-Lithur and requested to meet her but to date I’ve never gotten any response…I’ve written to the Department of Social Welfare but nobody has written back to me.

“I need help, they should help me,” she implored the Ministry.

Gov’t challenged

Meanwhile, Deputy Minister for Gender, Women’s and Children Protection, John Alexander Ackon says his outfit is constrained with the seeming reluctance to report to the appropriate agency, persons who need attention under such circumstances.

The problem as the Deputy Minister indicated, is blamable also on our cultural setting.

“We don’t get the reports coming through…which is even hindered by our cultural practices,” Mr. Ackon said.

He advised the public to take advantage of the reporting system and lodge complaints at any of the offices of the Department of Social Welfare for the required action to be taken.