Defying odds: How a primary 6 dropout ‘broke barriers’ to complete her Masters

The dream of every female is to have formal education to spur them on in their future endeavours.

But for Georgina Afia Kwarteng, that dream nearly fizzled into thin air when due to circumstances beyond her control, she had to drop out of school at primary 6.

As fate would have it, after several years hustling on the streets of Accra, trading and engaging in menial jobs, the Radio and TV broadcast journalist defied all odds, went back to school and has since graduated with a Master’s degree in Public Relations from the prestigious Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ).

The Media personality, popularly known as Authentic Mama, has made a profound revelation on how she climbed the academic ladder and achieved that feat even though she never attended senior high school (SHS).

She narrated how she lost her mom in 1992 while aged just six years, followed by that of her father in 1998, which rendered her totally an orphan.

“To say life has been a difficult journey is an understatement; someone’s story may be more touching than mine. However, I believe sharing mine on this platform will go a long way to encourage someone in the same situation. Before my dad’s passing, I was living with him to take care of him in a Village called ‘BANKO’ in the Ashanti Region, specifically in the Effiduase District. He had a health condition that couldn’t allow him to walk, and so I practically had to do everything for the old man Agya Yaw Kwarteng to the point that he had to go to private in a rubber bowl (Kruwaba) for me to dispose it at the refuge dump.”

Afia said things took a dramatic turn when in 2000, one of her big sisters brought her to the capital city, Accra, hoping to continue her education.

“Unfortunately, that hope was shattered; I stopped schooling at class 6-JSS1, and I started selling pure water at the OLD Achimota Station while, sadly, my sister got ejected from where she used to stay to an uncompleted building where there was no light to freeze the water so by the grace of God I stopped selling at the age of 15 and was just home.”

“Our God, who works in mysterious ways, connected me to a lady who works at a communication centre in my area where I used to do errands for her and at the end of the day, she buys food for me to eat, one day she told she’ll be going back to school and since I know how to make calls for client’s while she’s away, she’ll introduce me to her boss so he can employ me. Graciously I got employed and started making little small money; I saved a little, later around 2005, I got a job at a stationary shop in Adabraka and saved a bit of cash; by then, I was almost homeless because I was ejected from the uncompleted building I was perching with my big sister.”

As time passed, her admiration for corporate ladies grew so much that she made a conscious effort to associate herself with the educated in society.

In Afia’s words, “One of the ladies I admired so much, Naa Lamley, advised me that, even though I am a school dropout, I can still go to University if my soul wishes, ambiguous right? I decided to take up that challenge by attending a professional media school, All Stars Media School and later Galaxy Media College, where I got a diploma in journalism and hospitality, respectively. This allowed me to get into the media space as an intern at the now-defunct Prime FM.”

As fate would have it, her paths crossed with then Director of Communications with the largest opposition National Democratic Congress, James Asante, who guided and provided money for her to purchase admission forms to attend GIJ.

“I was assigned to cover an NDC Council of Elders presser at the Local Government secretariat at Madina; after the media briefings, I was conducting interviews for further clarification and heard a voice calling out the name of my station’s rep to come for honorarium popularly known as ‘soli.’ However, I focused on the interview and later approached James Asante, who asked my name and applauded me for not focusing on the soli.”

He then enquired about my educational background; I was reluctant, so he asked me to come to his office to talk more. God being so good when I went to see him, I opened up to him; he then told me to go to the Fidelity Bank to buy GIJ mature entrance forms to apply for a Diploma in Communication. I broke down and confided in him that I didn’t have the tuition fee to register; he then offered to help me pay half of the amount, and behold, after the entrance exam, I got admitted into the all-mighty Ghana Institute of Journalism, now UniMAC.”

Afia also had some words of encouragement to the youth, most especially school dropouts who have lost hope of furthering their education.

“The import of sharing this long story is to encourage a young lady and gentleman out there who have lost hope that there’s still hope. There’s nothing you can’t do if you put your mind to it. Success doesn’t always come easy. Keep pushing.”

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