Tiny star with a big dream: The resilient journey of a 7-year-old future nurse

Mumuni Hafsa is a 7-year-old girl born with an eye defect who is hoping to become a nurse despite not being in school.

As little as she is, her dreams seem to be dashing as there is no form of support for her to start her education.

In a pink long dress, young Hafsa treks on a dusty road towards the outskirt of a small community called Gbalahi in the Sagnarigu Municipality of the Northern Region where the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly landfill site is situated.

She usually goes there to collect used bottles and cans dumped at the site for sale.

Hafsa who lives with her grandmother after her parents divorced tells GhanaWeb she dreams of becoming a nurse despite not being in school because her grandmother cannot afford it.

As young as she is, Hafsa is already facing the damage of her parents' separation as her expression of her sentiments to GhanaWeb obviously indicates that after her mother and father parted ways, she has been left to her own fate with her old grandmother.

She said she is given GHC1 daily as ‘chop money’ which cannot afford food even in her small community and therefore has to resort to buying a local drink known as “Sobolo” from morning to around 5pm when she is sure of an evening meal.

Little Hafsa was lucky when GhanaWeb engaged her because she was fortunate to have passed through a naming ceremony in the community on her way to her daily workplace, the landfill site, she was served with rice in a plastic rubber.

Speaking to GhanaWeb at the landfill site, Hafsa said with her ‘business’, she is able to make between Gh¢5 to Gh¢10 if she is able to gather a sack of the empty bottles and cans, money she shares with her grandmother for their upkeep.

The sunlight's direction makes Hafsa continue blinking her eyes as it pains her. She is worried about stereotypes from her colleagues for that matter she doesn’t associate herself with friends at home except when she is at the ‘Borla’ site.

Hafsa expressed a strong passion to be in school to realize her dream of becoming a nurse and changing her life for good.

“My silent pray is that one day a God-fearing person would enroll me in school so that I become a nurse,” she said.

At home, her grandmother said it was always her prayer for a helper to step in to support her grandchild to realize her dreams.

However, until philanthropists and non-governmental organizations come in to support young Hafsa, she may never realize her dream of becoming a nurse.