Escaped forced marriage from north only to become victim of rape down south: Harrowing story of 12-year-old Ubaida
Her dream of becoming a professional nurse in the near future who could lend her support to doctors in a bid to provide adequate healthcare services to patients in the hospital became shattered from the very first day her parents decided to give her hand forcefully in marriage at a tender age of 12 due to poverty. Twice she had resisted the awful attempt by parents to be married off forcefully to a man older than his father’s age in order to attain her personal freedom and pursue her future dream. But for the third time, escape was her only way out of oppression. Her story could be likened to that of a popular quote: “jump from frying pan to fire”, no doubt! Ubaida,12, Kayayei (head porter) in the streets of Accra recounts the harrowing accounts of how she escapes from the grips of her parents in the north only to be raped down south amidst myriad of challenges she had to battle with in her everyday work as a head porter in the Accra. It was the most difficult decis