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Combing streets, ghettos for emotionally traumatised boys …the story of the ‘Woman King’ and Boy Child Supportive Care Foundation
In a society where conversations about the safety and wellbeing of people have always tilted to the side of women and the girl child, one often wonder who cares about the state of the young boys at the same age as the girls.
Boys have been usually considered emotionally and physically stronger vessels, able to go through tough and difficult challenges without the support often enjoyed by girls who go through less or similar trials.
Some of these boys have grown up knowing of a popular Ghanaian parlance ‘barima nsu’, which is literally translated to ‘men don’t cry.’
So, sometimes people don’t realise that behind this show of strength and swagger, lies a soft, emotionally traumatised boy that fears losing his masculinity by bringing out the other part of him.
This was what led to the establishment of the Boy Child Supportive Care Foundation, a little over a year ago, to provide that comforting shoulder for boys to share their concerns.
Even that thought to care for boys came from a woman, Edna Korama Yamoah, popularly known as ‘Woman King’ who stands for the plight of boys and men.
The story behind the Boy Child Supportive Care Foundation is quite fascinating, especially when both boys and men have failed to realise and accept their predicament.
But for the Woman King, boys and men must not see themselves in such struggles as a normal thing.
“You see, boys have been neglected for a long time. We always hear about the girl child. Everything in this society is about the girl child. We think the girls are vulnerable, but boys are more vulnerable.
In fact, most boys are more vulnerable than the girls. Boys get so emotional but they hide it because we always know them to be men and not expected to cry,” She explained.
After establishing the foundation, a lot of such boys have been brought together, especially those that are going through emotional problems.
Within this short space of time, the foundation has managed to put about 16 boys in basic school, almost 200 in technical and vocation through scholarship, and has over 150 engaged in sports activities, specifically football and basketball.
Without support from organisations, the foundation has struggled to send these boys to Senior High School (SHS) due to financial challenges, although the SHS is free but without some needed logistics.
According to the Woman King, the work of the foundation requires occasional visits to schools where they talk about issues on mental health and wellbeing.
“We also do charity works. We also do feeding on the streets and ghettos.
“The foundation currently don’t have a hub to house them. That is even not a major concern now since most of them have places to sleep. It’s just that they are poor. They don’t have what to eat, they don’t have what to wear.”
“They are not necessarily street children. These are boys with their families aged between 10-21 years. They are with the families but we see clearly they are going wayward.
“So, we help them with counselling. We do one-on-one counselling. We do interactive counselling. We do that a lot in secondary schools, especially in five schools.
The foundation’s operations are not always smooth as expected because of their backgrounds.
“They are from poor homes. Some are very stubborn as well, and proud. Sometimes you want to help a boy child and he’s like, I’m comfortable where I am. I want quick money. I want to carry goods to get money.
But I have a way of facing them. So, I’m always in kick; every day, I’m in kick. You hardly see me in flashy clothing.
“I go to the gated houses where people cannot go, where the police won’t go. Me, I go there. I go to the ghettos to speak to them.
“I make them feel I’m not against them. Rather, I want to understand them, so they should also understand me.
“Sometimes I cry. Sometimes I just get out of my car and walk along the streets just to look at these boys, how they behave, and their mannerisms,” she narrated.
Woman King has currently written proposals to churches, organisations and philanthropists to find ways to fund these activities that she believes will help a lot of boys realise their dreams.
“I didn’t have any grant. I didn’t even have the idea of writing to do this because we were not even a year old. So we contacted a few people and they started adopting some of the cases.
“So we have people who have adopted the education project. We have only individuals who are taking care of individual boys. They pay their school fees and most of them are in the private schools. Because they want the boys to be in the private schools.
“But after a year, we are collaborating with this big school with the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission.
We are also endorsed by the Ministry of Arts and Culture. We have the endorsement because there is this upcoming project; Arts and Craft. We wanted to do it in the secondary schools, but we realised that Ghana Education Service may delay us,” she stated.
At the sports level, the foundation requires training and remuneration for their coaches in charge of their 14, 16 and 18 football teams.
Woman King is a mother of two girls and believes it is for a purpose that she did not give birth to a boy because her passion has led her to take care of so many of them.
“I feel so good and proud when I see something good coming from my boys. When I see them so happy, it makes me so happy, it makes me feel I am on top of the world.
“I feel good that I have made an impact in somebody’s life, because I see progress. All these boys are transformed.
“And at the end of the day, they all come saying thank you. So it makes me very proud and emotional.”
Womans King’s next agenda is to have a “Books and Stationary Support Festival coming up in the first week of January when schools reopen. We are doing this because I went to some schools, about two or three schools in some villages and the teachers appealed to me to bring them books.”
In this regard, the foundation is calling for support to support these needy school children.
It is the belief of Woman King that the foundation would one day gain international recognition for the good works it is rendering to society.
By Cecelia Yada Lagba
He once sold kenkey to pay his school fees, and now wears the rank of Deputy Commissioner of Police. DCOP Kofi Sarpong, police officer and award winning gospel musician is charting a journey few could script.
In an interview with The Spectator chronicling his rise, the newly promoted DCOP took us on his journey through the ranks.
Early Life
“I was born in Berekum in the Bono Region, then Brong Ahafo, to Comfort Yeboah, affectionately called Maame Yaa, and the late Chief Inspector Kofi Sarpong,” he said.
His family story is one of resilience. His mother had two children before her husband died in an accident. She later married Kofi Sarpong’s father, a police officer, and had two more, himself and his junior brother. “So we are four, unfortunately one is deceased, just last year, so we are three now.”
School and struggle
He started at Berekum Methodist Primary under the old ‘Sito’ system. In Form Two, he moved to Obuasi to stay with a guardian for his Form Three education, then returned to Berekum for Form Four. He later attended Berekum Senior High School where he studied General Arts and shone as an athlete, a sprinter in the 100m, 200m and 4x400m relay.
After O-Levels, his batch was the last to write the exams, his dream was to become a teacher because of his love for children. But financial hardship forced a detour.
“I decided to help myself by going to buy maize and started preparing kenkey to sell at lorry parks and markets in Berekum,” he recalled.
According to him, the people from Berekum know this story. “I can make all types of kenkey, Fante Kenkey, Ga Komi and others. Don’t be surprised to see Kofi Sarpong Kenkey one day.” The proceeds paid his upkeep.
For this reason, he advised the youth “Don’t see life as a smooth journey but find something prudent to do to help yourself in difficult times.”
After grinding his education to a halt due to financial challenges, he now holds a Degree in Public Administration from GIMPA, a Master’s in International Relations and Diplomacy and Project Management, plus other higher certificates, with more in the offing.
The Police Call
When teaching did not materialise immediately, he moved to stay with his father at Osu, Accra. In 1994, he visited former IGP Nana Owusu-Nsia at Police Headquarters, who told about ongoing police enlistment.
In his head he declined, but outwardly he accepted to try reluctantly. Later, watching TV news and seeing long queues of young people aspiring to join the Police, he was inspired to reconsider.
He went to Berekum for his certificate. Accra enlistment had closed, so he joined the Kumasi exercise. He was selected, passed the exams and went to the Koforidua Police Training School, Galloway. After passing out, he was posted to the Logistics Unit at Police Headquarters.
At Headquarters, a senior officer encouraged young constables to further their education. He took a course in Purchasing and Supply via distance learning from a UK institution. 
Upon completion, the Police administration promoted him from Constable Class One to Chief Inspector, a leap that paved the way for him to enrol at the Police Academy. He graduated as ASP, and the climb to DCOP began.
“The officer corps starts from Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) from the cadet,” he explained. “When you graduate from the Police Academy, you are awarded ASP, and you move to Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), that’s when I released album to start my music career professionally.”
From there, he rose to Superintendent of Police (SP), Chief Superintendent, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), and now Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP). Next is Commissioner of Police (COP).
Music found him in Sudan
On peacekeeping duty in Sudan, officers from different nations came together to hold fellowship led by a Nigerian officer. In December that year, with top-ranked officers present, Kofi Sarpong led the service to the admiration of all.
On his return to Ghana, a Colonel, who was a Matron at 37 Military Hospital and a member of the 37 Methodist-Presbyterian Church invited him to their harvest service. He ministered, and as he stepped out of church, a man approached him with an offer to record him. He declined.
Days later, at the office, the man, Ernest Kwesi, who owned Media Excel Production sent an elderly man to pursue him. He still declined. This compelled Ernest Kwesi himself to visit him at the office. “He told me he had seen something in me.”
Just after Ernest Kwesi left,Kofi Sarpong wrote to then Director General/Welfare, Mohammed Alhassan, and Paul Tawiah Quaye the Inspector General of Police (IGP) at the time. “He opened the letter and said he had been waiting all this while because he had seen me perform at police officers’ events.”
He was summoned to the IGP’s office, a call which scared him, however, it was a good news; his request was approved. Against this backdrop, he informed Ernest Kwesi who quickly visited that evening with highlife musician Akwaboah Jnr., who taught him his first song, ‘Me ko nso hw3 mu’, and they went to the studio.
A song earlier recorded in reggae by Zapp Mallet was totally transformed by Nacee, so they released both versions on the album. Nacee, he says, hugely supported promotion, as did Mark Okraku-Mantey.
He also acknowledge Oware Jnr. who also wrote songs for him.
After his maiden album’s success, police leadership congratulated him. He says he is happy to have inspired other officers to write to the Service to pursue other interests.
An autobiography, he reveals, is in the offing.
Family and food
He is married to Mrs Salomey Sarpong with three children, two boys and a girl: Nana Nketiah, Maame Afia Yeboah Sarpong and Papa Kwabena Aseda Sarpong.
His hobbies are watching athletics and being with family. His favourite foods are fufu and konkonte with groundnut soup.
On music, he teased a collaboration with a top Nigerian artiste, promising fans “hot praises” soon.
He concluded by thanking Ghanaians for their support since his promotion, and thanked the Inspector General of Police for his guidance.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
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WHEN some of her pupils failed to show up at school, Mary Adotei did not always assume they were absent. Sometimes, she went looking for them.
In the communities where she taught, getting a child into the classroom could require more than preparing lessons. Mrs Adotei remembers occasions when she had to visit the homes of pupils, bathe them, prepare them and bring them to school herself.
“There were times I had to go to the homes of some of the children, bathe them and bring them to school,” she recalled.
It is a memory that captures much of her journey over the years as a teacher, a profession she entered without knowing it would become central to her identity.
Now, after years of working with children and communities, Mrs Adotei is taking lessons from the classroom into a new arena.
She is contesting the position of Women’s Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Asikuma Odoben Brakwa (AOB) Constituency in the Central Region, hoping to use her experience working with people to contribute to the welfare of women in the constituency.
But her story begins in the classroom.
After completing her basic and secondary education, Mrs Adotei spent 12 years working as a pupil teacher before she had the opportunity to receive professional training.
In 2006, she entered Fosu College of Education and completed her training in 2011 with a Diploma in Basic Education.
She returned to the classroom and has remained there since, teaching in different communities before moving to her current school, Catholic Boys Basic School in Breman Asikuma, in 2019.
The years have given her a front-row seat to the transformation education can bring.
Some of the children she once taught have grown into professionals, carrying the lessons they learnt in her classroom into hospitals, schools, offices and other workplaces.
Mrs Adotei said she had encountered former pupils who were now doctors, nurses, teachers and even a lawyer.
For a teacher, she said, such moments bring a special kind of satisfaction and reinforce the reason she remains passionate about education.
Her journey, however, has not been without difficult moments.
Teaching in local communities sometimes meant dealing with circumstances that went beyond academic work. Some pupils needed encouragement, personal attention and practical help before they could even settle down to learn.
Those experiences taught her that the challenges confronting people cannot always be solved from a distance. That understanding has followed her into her political activities.
Mrs Adotei has been involved in the NDC for years and previously served as a branch treasurer. She has also supported women in her branch, including assisting some to access medical treatment and providing help to families when the need arose.
She is now making her third attempt at becoming the constituency’s Women’s Organiser.
Her motivation is linked to what she has seen around her.
Mrs Adotei wants women in the constituency to have access to skills and opportunities that can help them become more economically independent.
She believes her years as a teacher have prepared her for the work, too, because the profession has taught her to listen, communicate, understand different circumstances and work patiently with people.
For her, the transition from teacher to political organiser is therefore not a complete departure from the path she has followed.
The classroom taught her to work with individuals. Politics, she hopes, will give her the opportunity to work with a wider group of women.
If elected, Mrs Adotei intends to continue teaching while taking up her political responsibilities. She said she would organise her time to attend meetings and constituency activities without abandoning her duties to her pupils.
Away from school and politics, she is a wife and mother of two sons who are pursuing their degrees at university.
Her message to young girls is shaped by everything she has seen education do for the children she has taught.
For Mrs Adotei, education remains one of the strongest tools available to young people, especially girls seeking to build better futures.
She wants them to stay in school, pursue further education and acquire skills that will prepare them for the future.
“Nowadays, you cannot go forward without education,” she said.
By Esinam Jemima Kuatsinu
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