What is the most important thing I've done for another person? - by Anthoinnette Ba-Innimayeh

LENDING A HAND HEALS MY HEART

I have been needing a lot of help almost all my life and it created an understanding of the feeling of need in me such that I think I sense it within when I see someone who needs help. I learned to offer any small assistance at an early age after feeling an extreme need for help myself. Funny how I was told that, as a toddler I did not want to share anything not even the parents I came to share with older siblings! They could not wait to share everything with me but when I arrived, I wanted my parents, teachers and favorite people to myself. It wasn’t long before life taught me in my teenage years that, I was on this earth with a mission to make a difference by giving my whole life to LENDING A HAND to others.

Proudly, there are a lot of things that I have done for people and I think they are all important because I know how every little help counts. However, the most significant was a helping hand I offered to a young girl. She had completed high school with distinction but lacked the support to continue to college. She stayed at home for almost three years until I found out that she was beginning to give up on life. I reached out and talked to her. I got friends from back home who had completed college and got jobs to reach out to her and they contributed as a group to buy her admission forms and I wrote to heads of institutions. Until a few responded. She got into one of Ghana’s top Universities this fall, and she is reading mechanical engineering. Another friend I contacted worked tirelessly to put her on a scholarship that pays for everything. I sung and danced the day she texted me about her first day in university.
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Why am I so proud of her and the fact that I was part of an important turn over in her life?. She would have fallen into the trap of suicidal thoughts as I can relate to that. My country would have lost one of the most intelligent women to poverty and lack of encouragement. Now I can just keep my fingers crossed in anticipation for the better tomorrow that I am hoping for. Sometimes I can be in need myself but it feels better to lend a hand even if it means giving everything. To help to make a difference, it starts with bold steps.