Ruhiya and Rami: A Story of Two Sisters

Girls ready for class in Ghana

Ruhiya and Rabi are sisters who, after their father passed away, were sent to live with a family friend in the CamFed/RAINS program area of Savelugu/Nanton while their mother was completing the traditional one-year widowhood rites. At the end of the year though, when it was time for the sisters to return to their home village, they both chose to stay in Savelugu so they could remain in school.

When asked by CamFed staff why they decided not to return to their mother, Ruhiya said it was because of the support she and her sister were receiving to go to school and improve their lives, while her mother had to remain indoors and not do anything during the same grieving period. Rejoining her mother in their small home village, where there was no school, would have meant the end of Ruhiya’s education and all opportunity for the future, so she and Rabi are just as happy now to stay in Savelugu with her parents friends during the school term.

The sisters Ruhiya and Rabi are just two among many girls who, in their own way, are making sacrifices to remain in school to make a change in their communities.