“Never will we go there,” that was his grandfather’s words to him after they had queued for hours only to be told the food was finished shortly before it could get to their turn.
They watched as the truck drove away with some food still left in it and returned home with disappointment and no idea of where their next meal will come from.
Rev. Dr. Moses Asaah Awinongya says this incident which occurred during the 1983 famine in Ghana was one of the many events that made him vow to make the lives of persons in the condition he found himself in then better when he grew up.
That vow put in him the enthusiasm to succeed no matter the obstacles he faced in life.
Having to walk barefooted to school till he got to the senior secondary school when he was privileged to own a pair of slippers (chalewote), the Catholic priest says these circumstances only made him want to succeed even more.
He recalled that “some days I will get a car to come from Namoo and put my rubber bag on my head and then pass through the bush and go to school so that I’ll avoid being seen by my colleagues in the car… it was tough but worth living because you learn how to live with a lot and you learn how to live with little.”
With his zeal, he was able to sail through to the University of Ghana where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, all in the hope to one day become the governor of Ghana’s central bank.
But his passion for the less privileged in society would see him changing the course of his life.
“I was working with youth in Ashaiman and I saw a lot of them who were in need and they had nobody so I’ll save my pocket money and use it to support the young ones… the question was what do you do after university and I said I wanted to become a father of the fatherless,” he told GhanaWeb’s ‘The Untold’ team.
True to his dreams, Rev. Dr. Awinongya currently heads the Regentropfen Education Foundation which runs a university, SHS, technical school as well as basic school in his hometown, Namoo in the Upper East region.
Majority of the students are on full scholarship whilst the remaining few pay next to nothing with flexible paying arrangements.
“We are supporting 270 youth and children in the whole of Ghana from kindergarten to university. We have one of them being a medical doctor now, and we have some being teachers and others are nurses… it’s a joy to see that,” he narrated with a broad smile on his face.
Watch the full interview with Rev. Dr. Awinongya below
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