Meet Bariya; The Final Year College Student Who Does ‘Kaya’ To Pay Her Fees

Yet another story of defying the odds to make a mark in life; a final year student of the Gambaga college of education has kept herself through school by carrying loads to pay her fees.

Bariya Tia travels from Gambaga to Kumasi every vacation to do her ‘Kayaye’ business before gathering enough funds to continue her education.

Her story came to light when Abusua FM’s Eunice Akoto Mansa Attakora-Manu got curious how a ‘Kayaye’ she contracted to carry her load in the Bantama Market, could speak such fluent English.

She narrated that her village folk in Dadriboari where she resides, never found reason to allow a girl child to pursue any higher education as according to them, the girl children would only spend their income on their husbands unlike the males who would cater for their parents if they got educated.

“Looking at things, I think I am the only girl who has been able to go to the training college or the tertiary and more to the point, at my village, they don’t encourage ladies in education because they see it that ladies education is nothing. They are only meant to marry or to be in the kitchen and I want to discourage that,” she says.

Her basic school education was catered for by an International Non Governmental Organisation Camfed – an organisation tackling poverty and inequality by supporting marginalized girls to go to school and empowering young women to step up as leaders of change.

Bariya had to employ all avenues including issuing threats of running away from home and going around begging for opinion leaders to plead with her mother to pay her fees when she gained admission into the Gambaga Senior High School.

“It wasn’t easy for me when I got admission into the Gambaga College of education. My uncles and my brothers told my mother that if she used her money to pay for me to train to become a teacher, I will send all my money to my husband’s house. I had to go and see a lot of people to come beg my mum. The only thing I could do was to threaten my mum by telling her that I was not coming back to the village. I will remain in Tamale forever because I know I no longer have anybody to support me in my education,” she narrated.

Bariya lives in a wooden shack, at Akwatia Line in a very notorious area called Bombay.

You would have to drop off on the way and walk in between buildings, jump a few gutters, navigate your way carefully through saw dust and swampy grounds, and squeeze yourself to pass in-between compound buildings before you finally get to her place of abode.

Her shack, you would call it, is a small one with very little ventilation occupied by thirty other young girls who have migrated from Northern Ghana and travelled down south in search of menial jobs.

She is not in this struggle alone. A friend of hers Samed Faisal who has completed the Senior High School also lives here as a head porter.

She told Ultimate News’ Ivan Heathcote – Fumador she is here to gather enough money to go back to school.

“You know we are from the North and the situation is very unbearable for us to take care of ourselves and that is why we are here. Bariya inspires me a lot because I have also completed school this year. I studied General Arts and I also want to be a teacher,” Faisal shared.

Bombay is full of menial workers, questionable characters and a booming narcotics trade with marijuana smokers who wouldn’t mind our TV cameras capturing them doing their usual but illegal activities.

But this den has not shortened Bariya’s vision. She aspires to be a member of Parliament for Nalerigu-Gambaga one day, to cause a change.

Interestingly, her role model is the current Local Government Minister and MP for the Nalerigu-Gambaga constituency Hajia Alima Mahama whom Bariya speaks of highly.

She told Ivan, “My role model is Hajia Alima the current MP for Nalerigu-Gambaga constituency. I can see that she helps women in the various communities especially in the typical villages and I think she is focused.

“Through Hajia people are getting to know that ladies education is very important. She is the founder of the Gambaga Girls’ Senior High School. If it wasn’t because of her, I wouldn’t have gotten to college because it is through that school that I have been able to get to the Gambaga College of Education,” A grateful Bariya Tia added.

Help has started trickling in after her inspiring story was aired on EIB platforms Ultimate FM, Abusua FM, Starr FM and GHONE TV. But this is just a gesture to ignite a glowing future of Bariya Tia who has defied all odds to educate herself.