Fadila Ndebugre, a young nurse who was trained at the Dunkwa-On-Offin Nursing Training College in the Central Region, has had to resort to head-ferrying of loads (kayayo) for shoppers at the Madina market, for survival, as she awaits her posting by the Ministry of Health, so she can practise as a nurse – two years after leaving school.

A native of Fumbisi in the Upper West Region, Fadila graduated from the nursing training college in August 2016, but was forced to idle at home due to the delay by the Ministry of Health in posting her batch of nurses to health facilities across the country.

She, thus, decided to be a ‘kayayo’, in the interim, as she awaits her posting.

Fadila told GBC24 in an interview that even though her resort to being a ‘kayayo’ was a stop-gap, “I’m never satisfied because, sometimes carrying the load in itself, you get tired; the work is very stressful but because there’s nothing to do, I don’t want to be idle, I have to get myself involved in something; that’s why I’m doing it”.

“It’s very dangerous”, she said, adding: “There are always cars moving around.

“Sometimes you can be hit by a car or any vehicle at all; one can be hit down, and there are others that move on bikes…”, adding: “Sometimes you carry something, when you fall down, you are asked to pay for it … If you happen to break something like a glass, the person may ask you to account for it”, she lamented.

Fadila said she cannot wait for the Ministry of Health to post her to a facility to put her nursing skills to use.

“I wish I was being called to do my nursing than doing this because it doesn’t help. I’m not making enough money but just because I don’t want to be idle and there’s nothing to do, I want to get something small for myself; that’s why I get myself on board”, she said.