Zakia Issahaku defying hearing impairment to become a nurse

Zakia Issahaku, 25, is defying her hearing impairment challenges with a total commitment made to her parents to study nursing with the ultimate goal of becoming a professional nurse.

She is currently the only deaf student in the Community Health Nursing Training College (CHNTC) in Tamale in the Northern Region.

The school offered Zakia Issahaku an admission to study nursing in the school in 2019 following an impressive performance she displayed during an interview session.

This was after she qualified from Senior High School and applied to the school to express her interest in studying nursing.

The 25-year-old Gonja girl, however, has been struggling with her studies in the school because of lack of an interpreter to permanently and constantly guide her in class.

Zakia Issahaku and her poor parents who are traders defied her predicaments and procured the services of an interpreter for the first year.

Unfortunately, they have not been able to sustain the financial commitment in bankrolling her interpreter throughout the three-year program.

A reason, the student, her interpreter and parents joined hands with Moontouch Foundation, an NGO committed to highlighting the plight of the student in order to draw the attention of government to the debilitating subject.

Executive Director of Moontouch Foundation, Zambaga Rufai Saminu who led a team of media personnel to the Community Health Nursing Training College in Tamale to assess her situation, has called on Ghana Education Service (GES) Ghana Health Service (GHS), central government and other organizations to recognize the challenges confronting the hearing impaired student and other physically challenged students across the country and address them.

He said they must come to the aid of the people with disabilities especially those who have struggled to make it into tertiary institutions.

"By providing facilities that would make our educational structure more friendly for both physically challenged and those who are fit to study under decent circumstances with equal opportunities to acquire knowledge, experience and skills, deemed necessary for them to contribute their quota to national development."

Issahaku Zakia, although deaf, has pushed her way through into second year as a nursing student, but the poor system made sure she receives her share of ongoing discrimination in public institutions.

The Community Health Nursing Training College could just be one, there are many schools with no facilities, interpreters to aid the physically challenged in their studies, said Zambaga Rufai Saminu.

On the back of this, Moontouch Foundation, the Non-Governmental Organization highlighting the plight of Zakia Issahaku, he emphasized would continue to appeal to government to make all public educational institutions and if possible, private educational institutions, disability-friendly in order to attract the best of human resource materials for nation-building.

Speaking to Comfort Kona, Principal of the Community Health Nursing Training College, she said that it would be good for government to provide the necessary facilities, human resources which includes interpreters, not only for the Community Health Nursing Training College, but all other institutions across the country.

She believes doing that would aid Zakia Issahaku and her kind, who are brilliant but having to struggle to compete favourably in class because of the physical challenges facing them.

Zakia is the only deaf student in the school and therefore must secure an interpreter to assist her to understand details of the subjects being thought, she underscored.

Speaking in an interview, Zakia Issahaku said she has refused to allow her physical challenges put an impediment on her way because her commitment to become a health professional overrides everything.

Although many of the people with disabilities are often marginalized or discriminated against in almost all levels of our national development especially in the education sector, she said she would defy the odds to become relevant to society.

Issahaku Zakia is currently in second year pursuing a diploma in nursing even without the interpreter to help her go through her studies with ease, but, her results in the past one year has been average and could become excellent-provided she secures the services of a permanent interpreter.

"The lack of an interpreter is making learning very difficult for me (Zakia Issahaku) even though I am brilliant and have interest in becoming a professional nurse" she observed.

Many educational institutions in the country are currently not disability friendly, and the Community Health Nursing Training College situation in Tamale sympathizes the frustration many hearing impaired students go through in other institutions across the country.

This is making it very difficult if not impossible for people with disabilities to study some of the courses in Ghana even if they have an interest in doing so.

For instance, in the case of Zakia Issahaku, she had to pay an interpreter for over one year now to assist her during classes hours.

"She always has to pay for the services of a private interpreter to come to her class whenever class is in session," her colleagues attested.