By Paul M. Kanneh
“Besides I beg people, from there I sit down behind the palm kernel rock, I burst palm kernel and give it to my grandmother to fix it for me to sell before I get food to eat, and support my child”, Disabled mother, Amy Massaquoi tells Journalist Jenkins Varney Mabande in interview.
Amy Massaquoi is a resident of Boasan Town, Porkpa District, Grand Cape Mounty County. She is a disabled and depends on wheelchair to move around. She is a mother of three children. She says the fathers of her children often escape from her when they pregnant her. “Just how the gave me the pregnancy, they run way from me”, she explained. Quizzed about the whereabouts of her children’s fathers, Amy says, “the first baby’s father is in Gbah, the other one I don’t know his father whereabouts, the other one on my lap, I don’t even know where his father is now because just how they gave me the pregnancy, they run away from me”, Amy painfully explained her ordeal. The last of Amy’s baby is a beautiful girl child.
Amy said she is supported by her little sister in moving from one place to another. Her little sister also helps find food for she and her children. Amy also laments that her runaway children’s fathers do not provide support for the children. She called on county officials, philanthropists and well-meaning Liberians to come to her aid. “They must please come to my rescue; I suffering too much”, she further narrates her appalling condition.
Beautiful Amy depends on palm kernel to feed and clothes her children. She specifically asked the President of Liberia, George Weah and the two Senators of Grand Cape Mount County to come to her rescue.
Although disabled, Amy Massaquoi looks beautiful. Sitting in a wheelchair with depression, the smile tells she is a beautiful lady. Her braided hair and eyes tell everything about her beauty. But her problem is a compound-complex one. As a disabled, Amy is also an orphan.
She says her both parents are dead and gone ever since. In a true African tradition, Amy parents would have been happy to take care of their grandchildren. But death didn’t allow them to see their beautiful daughter give them grandchildren. Amy is left to struggle on her own, as unscrupulous village men take advantage of her, leaving her with child’s burdens.
Amy’s hope is her children. But this hope only becomes a reality if the kids are well taken care of and educated. Amy is likely to be one of those childbearing Liberian mothers to witness her kids become street kids or Zogoes if conditions remain the way they are.
How Amy will overcome her suffering in a country recently listed among countries with more hungry people is the biggest question. Amy’s only hope is that, those of you reading her sad story see reason to come to her aid. She can be reached on 0880709086. The alternative number is 0888022040.
Photo courtesy: Journalist Jenkins Varney Mabande
