Queensland At The Heart Of Sodom And Gomorrah

Paulina Nlando, a resident of the controversial Konkomba settlement (sometimes referred to as Sodom and Gomorrah) in the heart of Agbobloshie, had a vision for the child drifters in that settlement seven years ago.

Each morning, she watched on with concern the scores of children left behind by their mothers to roam about aimlessly around the area.

Some of these children got knocked down by cars coming to the busy market or sometimes by truck pushers with loads of foodstuff. Some even got missing for as long as 24 hours, causing trauma to their families.

Children from as young as two years to as old as 10 years and above roamed about, sometimes hungry, sometimes crying with no one to look after them as their mothers went out on their head porter (Kayayei) or petty trading businesses.

As she watched on with a concerned heart, Paulina, a teacher by profession, thought about what she could do to assist as a resident.

She used to say to herself that those roaming children were the next generation kings and queens of this land whose future should not be allowed to go waste.

One morning, she decided that she would use her two rooms at the Konkomba settlement to open a school for these future kings and queens of Konkomba land.

The name for her dream school was thus hatched.

What was left was the money to kick start and she saw an answer in “susu” operators to grant her a loan.

It is one year ago that I made a “fact finding” visit to Konkomba and its environs.

At the time, fighting between two factions was in full flight there and in the process, there were unfortunate shootings which led to some of the people losing their lives and structures burnt down.

Last Friday, I walked into Konkomba once again not on a “Presidential” walkabout of course.

I went on a follow up mission to see how the place has shaped up or shaped down with all those threats that came from the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, (AMA) in the heat of last year’s riots.

I met this young man called Mohammed and he agreed to be my escort.

As we began our walk through the cow leg smoking enterprise, pressing on through countless alleyways, jumping over gutters and strings of waste water running through “homes”, and music blasting at deafening heights, Mohammed filled me in with some of the recent happenings in Konkomba.

I was told that since the riots of last year, there have been two serious fire outbreaks one of which nearly destroyed part of the guard room of the Old Fadama Police Station.

I saw some burnt down structures still standing. It was while on this walkabout that I chanced on an intriguing discovery, Queensland Primary School which sits a few blocks away from the heart of the famous Yam Market.

Discovering Queensland was by chance and not by plan. On our walkabout, we heard deafening shouts and screams of children interspersed with drumming.

We decided to walk in the direction of the noise. Boy, walking through the Sodom and Gomorrah settlement can be a hell. There is a lot of pushing and shoving but I was determined not to give up until I satisfied my curiosity.

My escort walked briskly ahead of me; of course he knows how to weave his way through.

I trailed way behind squeezing myself through thin spaces making sure that I did not step on toes or knocked down wares and got attacked since my shouts of “excuse me please” did not help.

I kept following Mohammed as he waved his hands ahead to signal which direction he was.

I finally caught up with him and in no time, we traced the noise to a two storey wooden structure with lots of children in school uniform.

There was no signage but looking closely at the crest on the uniform of one of the children, I got the name of the school – Queensland Primary.

I was greeted with a loud “good morning, Madam” by lots of children sitting obediently on mats spread on the floor. Before long, a lady walked up to me and asked that I came upstairs with her.

Upstairs was going up some crooked wawa board staircase leading to an open space with some two rooms at the extreme end. The open space is class four and five, while the enclosed rooms at the extreme end are kindergarten one and two.

Two of the teachers were busy teaching in class four or was it class five? The lady who invited me upstairs was the proprietor, Paulina Nlando.

We sat a little away and in a corner not too far from the class in session.

That must have been her “office”, I thought, but did not have the courage to ask her.

Madam Paulina Nlando is a former teacher from Northern Ghana.

With eleven years teaching experience behind her, she definitely knew what she was about and was determined to actualise her dream.

With just 12 children at the start, the school now has 200 children on roll even though active attendance fluctuates between 100 and 120.

She employs seven teachers who cover such subjects as English, Mathematics, ICT, Natural Science and Creative Arts.

Paulina Nlando’s small contribution to keeping the children of Kayayie off the street and maintaining them in a classroom is a yeoman’s job.

With very little funds available to her, she has transformed a small nursery into a learning academy. English is the mode of communication and the children speak it fluently.

Within the limited space and the scanty resources available to her, Paulina is trying hard to make Queensland a real land for queens and kings.

She proudly showed me around and what impressed me most was the makeshift kitchen downstairs where she has employed someone who cooks and serves hot lunch to the children at a cost of 40 pesewas per plate per day.

For those who get to school early, she has someone who comes in to sell cooked breakfast on the premises.

The classrooms downstairs for the younger children have a handful of tables and chairs.

With smiles on their innocent faces, the children sat packed, toe to back on mats on the bare floor while others took their pre-lunch nap.

Outside on a narrow corridor, some of the children were engaged with their drama teacher learning cultural dancing and proudly practising for their speech and prize giving day which was coming on Saturday.

Some of the teachers were busy wrapping up books to be used as prizes for outstanding work done. Order in the midst of chaos but quite impressive.

Paulina Nlando’s contribution towards the education of the children of Sodom and Gomorrah is commendable. With the setting up of Queensland School, what she has done indirectly is to contain a generation of street children.

She is keeping such children in the classroom to help shape their future. She tries to make it attractive by providing them with cooked meals and a nap time for the very young ones.

With the older children, she has tried to engage their interest by including ICT on her curriculum and engaged a teacher who teaches them how to use the computer.

To encourage personal hygiene, she has introduced Wednesday wears and Friday wears so in effect, no child would wear one uniform throughout the week.

Indeed, Queensland in the heart of Konkomba may be nursing future kings and queens of the land. That is one woman’s laudable contribution.

From what I saw, she is on course but would however need support to expand and employ more teachers which in a way is giving employment to the older men and women of Sodom and Gomorrah.

She could do with computers (new or used), books, stationery, tables and chairs, or even cash to help her continue to render the valuable service she has embarked on.

The ambition she has nurtured over the last seven years is in line with the national focus and certainly within the expectations of the Millennium Development Goals to get all children of schooling age into the classroom by the year 2015.

But, perhaps, even more important and from a social point of view is her passion to stem the tide of future drifters on our streets. Help to Queensland will be in order.