Friday 2 October 2015

The Name Behind The Bride's Face

-An intriguing story of a young Makeup Artist


Akosua Benewaa
While her colleagues confined their pencils and crayons to tracing alphabets in 'My First Copy' books and colouring cartoons, Akosua Benewaa would stand before a glittering mirror to paint her face with hers.

Ask her mother, Mrs Juliana Opoku Agyeman, how her powder mysteriously got finished in the house within a few days of purchase and you will know that Akosua used it all on her face.

Akosua’s father, Mr. Prince Charles Darkwah had a problem with her 'behaviour'. The sight of his daughter painting her eyebrows and lips sent him crazy.

“Akosua, don’t take after those bad girls. Your mother never did this,” Mr. Darkwah would fume.

But... this did not deter the young girl. She was perhaps a stubborn girl with an innate passion that would not be sacrificed on the altar of threats or scorn. After all, she never became a bad girl as her father feared.

This childhood account, Akosua tells me spans over twenty years.

“The truth is that most of us in our childhood days had something we were so much attached to so that nothing could separate us from it. But frankly, I never knew about who a make-up artist was,” she said.

Akosua Benewaa, born Darkwah Benewaa Lucy, is a professionally trained teacher. For four years now, she has been pinning chalk to the blackboard and marking her pupils’ homeworks and class exercises.

She says seeing the beam of smiles on her pupils’ faces each morning, and guiding and guarding them climb the ladder of life makes teaching such a noble profession.

Madly in love with teaching, she is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in English at the Valley View University. She does not merely wish to teach at the university someday but become a teacher with enormous control over the subject she loves.

Interesting enough, aside holding onto teaching tightly as she would have a relay baton, her childhood fantasy of facial colouring and powdering has not been put to rest. It has put her on another pedestal today.

If Akosua deems teaching important, seeing the touch of beauty she leaves on the faces of her bridal clients equally makes her appreciate being a make-up artist, too. She says she will combine the two.

I asked her how she was able to sustain her childhood dream; the dream she herself never understood as a child.

“Realising the thing [making up] was still an interest to me, I learnt it as a trade from someone. After a number of years of learning it, I told my mistress I would want to go set up my own brand which she agreed,” she said.

‘Ever21 Make-up’ became the name of that brand. When asked why Ever21, Akosua said, “no matter how old you are, when I touch you with my pencils and brushes, you get the looks of a twenty one year old lady.”

Akosua plies her trade primarily in the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions of Ghana.  She says almost every week or two, she has a client to attend to either in Kumasi or Sunyani.

But how much does she charge a client? Would she disclose that to us?

She says her services are affordable. “If the bride books for both ‘engagement’ and wedding, she pays only 500ghc; 50ghc per a bride’s maid. Aside the brides, others come to be made up for funerals, weddings and photoshoots. For such, I charge 50ghc per client.”

Determined as a young make-up artist, she does not only make people up. She trains others as well to be like her, too.

Akosua says her trainees pay "something small" as school fees.

“Depending on the number of days one would like to learn, one week goes for 150ghc, three weeks 300ghc and three months 1000ghc respectively,” she said.

She says she hardly touches her salary. She makes a living out of her childhood hobby. So, what are her parents’ reactions now to their daughter’s humble success?

“I remember a client paid her booking fee to my mother. She was like ‘Ei! I didn’t know there is cash in your thing [referring to makeup],’” Akosua recounted.

She said she could not help but laugh.

What about her father?

“My father would now tell me that I honour him with what I do. He is just happy for me.”

Akosua got married on August 22, 2015 and you won’t believe she made herself up. Yes, she did!

Her story teaches us many things as parents, would-be parents and even caretakers; we must do well to safeguard our children’s childhood dreams. 

In Africa, precisely Ghana, we often do not pay attention to the things children are fond of. We are only concerned about putting them into schools for them to pass examinations from the basic through to the senior high level. Then, at the tertiary level we impose on them our choice of courses.

We want them to become what we dreamt of but could not achieve ourselves. In another breath, we want them to choose professions such as teaching and nursing. Why? Such professions have existing job opportunities. We fear our children joining the long winding queues of unemployment. But the truth is that smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.

As it stands, Akosua is out with her first book on make-up artistry dubbed “Ever Twenty One Outlook.” In a few years to come, she wants all roads in search of beauty lead to the Ever21 offices (which will dot all the capital cities of Ghana).

At such offices, you don’t just come for makeup but have the opportunity to buy everything associated with beauty.

Is that not wonderful? What is your dream? What do you fancy most and what are you doing about it? Are you just going to leave it rot in your imaginations?

Aside journalism, do not be surprised to hear Mensah Farms winning the next best farmer in Ghana.

I would want to own a farm of both crops and livestock; produce palm oil from my palm tree plantation and others and export processed products in large scale.

Don’t kill that dream, live it for it is not too late. Give your dream a touch of Ever21.

By Solomon Mensah

The writer is a young Ghanaian journalist.





Twitter: @Aniwaba

Wednesday 12 August 2015

Of a hustler-turned-SHS teacher and Taliban’s favorite quote



 
Kyereh-Yeboah Victor
“God is great,” so says Kyereh-Yeboah Victor, a Division Two League referee and Social Studies teacher at the Berekum Presbyterian Senior High School.

“At the back or inside of every book that I have bought is written ‘God is great’,” Victor hinted. He says that is his motto.

I have personally been on the same campus with him at the Berekum College of Education. We sat in the same classroom and slept in the same hall, the Nicholas Hall.

I learnt of his struggles back on campus but never got to know him better until I recently engaged him in a WhatsApp chat. After reading and listening to him tell me how he hustled to the position he is now, I did not question him any further on his chosen motto. I couldn’t agree any more.  

“I started my basic school at AbusuapÔ‘adeÔ‘ L/A Primary School at AbusuapÔ‘adeÔ‘, a community in Dormaa Ahenkro West of the Brong Ahafo Region,” he narrated.

Victor says that was in 1988 and he completed Junior High School in 1997 at Kojo Kumi Kurom L/A JHS, also in Dormaa Ahenkro West.

It was after his JHS education that life twisted his head for him to see his heels. Like Syria’s refugee children in Lebanon, he became an adult before his time; he had to fend for himself!

Victor tells me he became confused on his direction to climbing the ladder of life.

“I realized my destiny was in my hands and that I must work a magic. I looked for a job at Kojo Kumi Kurom as a druggist [at the Onyame Akwan Drug Store]. I worked there for over a year but had to quit the job due to poor working conditions,” he added.

Victor would now move to Mmirengyaa, about 10km away from Kojo Kumi Kurom, to till a land for the cultivation of rice with his God-given strength.

“God watered my 15 acres rice farm. I came to settle in Berekum (Brong Ahafo Region) with the proceeds of the farm to learn a trade. This was in 1999.”

He says he learnt carpentry, specializing in roofing of buildings, which took him to places including Baakoniaba in Sunyani and Akyem-Aprade, Eastern Region.

All this while, Victor had the intention of continuing his education but needed to plough and save cash just as the ant saves food for the future.

Carpentry, according to Victor, was/is as difficult as pulling a string of hair from the nostrils. He had to, at a point in time, kiss his tools a goodbye for school.

“In 2002 thereabout, I made a return journey to Dormaa Ahenkro to a village called Santaso. Here, I worked as a labourer on people’s farms earning GH₵100 per month.”

Victor’s parents, both cocoa farmers, had promised him of their support should he be able to gather some amount of money for his schooling. Apparently, in the 2003/2004 academic year, he applied and got admission at the Methodist Secondary Technical School (MESTECH), Berekum. He needed to make a comeback to Berekum. However, he had to live with a foster parent.

“My comeback to Berekum was very hard.”

Surviving through turbulent times, he managed to complete his SHS education and gained admission into the Berekum College of Education in 2007.

Completing the teacher’s college in 2010 and realizing the need to climb high the ladder of education, he enrolled in the Valley View University (VVU), Accra-Oyibi campus, to study Bachelor of Education, majoring in Social Studies.

Luck shone on him after his VVU course. Guess what. He got the opportunity to teach at the Berekum Presbyterian Senior High School. That is exactly how he ended up as a teacher there!

Away from education, he doubles as a [class two] football referee of Ghana’s Division Two League; a passion he said he started in 2009. On August 3, 2015, he officiated a match between Reformers vs Bectero at the Sunyani Coronation Park.

Currently, he is the Public Relations Officer of the Berekum Municipal Referees Association. He is inspired to do more in spite of the less he has.

Mr. Enoch Kyeremeh is a teacher in Dormaa Ahenkro and a close friend of Victor’s. When I contacted him on whom Victor is to him, he said, “I always tell him to celebrate every blessed day as a special day for he has passed through hell to be where he is now.”

At the recent ranking of the richest people in Ghana, Kyereh-Yeboah Victor’s name was not on the list. It won’t even be on the list of the richest people in Berekum alone. But… he is thankful to God for how far he has come in life.



In one of Akwasi Ampofo Agyei’s (Mr. AAA) songs titled ‘Time Changes,’ – which, however, should have been ‘Times Change’- the legendary highlife musician of blessed memory told a story of a teacher.


The teacher, in the said song, told his pupils that they should not be surprised should they see him in the near future working as either a truck pusher, basket seller or even a pastor for times change.

Indeed, times change but what we will become at the end of the changes in times is determined by how we approach issues in our lives. Victor approached his with vim and vigour and counted on God to see him through hence his motto- God is great.

The terrorism group, Taliban, has a favorite quote, “America has the watch but we have the time.”

While you are motivated by Victor’s story to press on in life, be reminded not to force God to run you through life with the speed of a duiker.

Pray and do your best possible in your chosen field or towards what you want to achieve. Most importantly, wait on Him and relax. You have the ‘watch’ BUT… let God tell the ‘time.’ 

It takes just a day for the moon’s light to melt down the darkness of your sorrows.
Lest I forget, Victor says I should tell you he has not stopped dreaming. He wants to graduate to the status of a lecturer and an international referee of repute someday. 

By Solomon Mensah

Writer's email: nehusthan4@yahoo.com
Twitter: @Aniwaba


Wednesday 22 July 2015

SUNYANI: Teacher plants over 12,000 trees

The Man behind the trees

Mr. Isaac Yaw Brenya
He is famed across the length and breadth of Sunyani and the Brong Ahafo Region at large.

Mr. Isaac Yaw Brenya is neither an actor, a Member of Parliament nor a retired footballer. The fifty-five (55) year old professional teacher teaches Ghanaian Language (Asante Twi) at the Sunyani Senior High School (SUSEC) and is a long-serving assembly man at the Area II electoral area, in Sunyani.

Spotted on his campus or in town, the old but active man would respond to his cherished nickname, Koo Zee. Beyond teaching and working as an assembly man, however, Mr. Brenya bestows on himself a task the world pays and encourages others to do. He voluntarily plants trees!

 “I have planted over 12, 000 trees in and around the Sunyani municipality now,” he said as he wiped beads of sweat that dotted his face.
Mr. Brenya recounts that he started planting trees in early 1982. “[But] my first and major point of tree planting was the Sunyani Anglican Cluster of Schools in the Brong Ahafo Region.”

He says that he taught here [Anglican Schools] as a classroom teacher in the late 1990s. With plant seedlings then supplied to schools by the Forestry Division, he took it upon himself to help green Ghana as a way of fighting against the depletion of the ozone layer.

Mr. Boakye Dankwah, Deputy Regional Manager of the Anglican Schools said: “Brenya has given Anglican Schools a serene environment with his trees.”

The tour

Clad in a spotty cap with his Lacoste that kissed the waist-line of his trouser, Mr. Yaw Brenya hurriedly led me on a tour through the various spots he has planted [his] trees.

Our first point of visit was the Odumaseman Senior High School, Brong Ahafo Region. This [School] was his second point of tree planting. As our vehicle screeched to a stop near the school, he hopped out and walked straight up to the school’s entrance.

He kicked his right leg against a dwarf pillar and shot a finger signaling me to follow him.

“In 1996, a teacher at the Odumaseman Senior High school called on me to plant some trees around the school field. She called me to help… and I responded to her call positively,” he said.

As of the time of this visit to the Odumaseman Senior High School, team members of the football club Ku­mapem Stars were taking respite under Brenya’s trees before the start of their training. Their hearts were full of gratitude for his selfless effort.

At the Sunyani Senior High School where Brenya teaches, he has planted over two thousand trees on the compound to offer a beautiful landscape and serve as wind breakers.

Upon entering the school’s compound, the acacia trees that flank the shoulders of the walkway seem to hymn a warm ‘welcome’ to visitors with a fresh, soothing air. Straight ahead is the administration block with a greenery scene of trees at its forecourt. At a branch on your right, one is met with the Tano House. Behind it are a number of Brenya’s trees.

Walking onward from the road behind the Tano House, one gets to the girls’ dormitory where the trees have formed a canopy on the walkway.

The Assistant Headmaster (Academics) of the school, Mr. Sie Kwasi said that, “The Sunyani Senior High School’s football field, classroom blocks, dormitories, among others are all ornamented with Mr. Brenya’s trees. The school for many years now has not recorded a rip-off of its roofs due to the presence of the trees.”

The trees: overview

Mr. Brenya has so far planted trees in 18 senior high schools in and around the Sunyani municipality. He has also planted trees in almost all the basic schools in there.

He hasn’t stopped there. Brenya has planted trees along all the principal streets in Sunyani including the Eusbett Hotel road, a portion of the Kumasi-Sunyani road and the Sunyani-Techiman road.

He has planted around the Sunyani Children’s Park and in front of the Sunyani Police Station.

Interesting enough, he says he goes on a visitation to all the spots he has his trees to count and prune them.

According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), global emissions of carbon dioxide have increased by more than 46 per cent since 1990 hence the need for afforestation and reforestation.

“Mr. Yaw Brenya’s contribution towards the reduction of the emissions of carbon dioxide is spectacular. Not only does he plant the trees but cares for them. I am a former student of the Sunyani Senior High School and I know how dear the trees are to him,” a resident said.

His Award

After our tree tour, he took me to his house.

Mr. Brenya creaked open his door, went inside the room and returned with a laminated certificate of citation.

In 2006, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded him with a citation for his great role in society. The citation, among other things, describes him as a ‘born environmentalist.’

This seems to be the only award he has received for his contribution towards the betterment of the society. But he is not deterred nor motivated by awards.

“Tree planting has now become part and parcel of my life. I believe that whenever I plant a tree, I save life and it gives a reason why man should live,” Brenya said.

He expressed his profound gratitude to all his students in all the schools he has planted trees for assisting him plant and water the trees.

In fulfilment of the Millennium Development Goal 7 which seeks to ensure environmental sustainability, Brenya has successfully contributed his quota. 

Whenever you breathe [in fresh air], remember that a tree somewhere produced for your breathing that oxygen.

If you cannot plant trees yourself, do not [help] cut down trees illicitly.



By Solomon Mensah

Writer’s email: nehusthan4@yahoo.com 

Twitter: @Aniwaba