The Street to Stardom Outreach

I started out from the bottom and I was never meant to rise. My father strolled out on me before I was even born and my mother did same when I was 11!

At that age, I was given to a stranger who took me on a journey that was supposed to be my last which eventually became my first. We travelled by road and after two days, we got to Tudu park in Accra. He gave me 11600 cedis and asked me to wait for him to return but he never did. I was left stranded in a strange land with a strange tongue I could neither speak nor understand.
With nothing but 11600 cedis, Primary Three education and a choice to either die or live, I was set loose into the Arena. But for me not to die like a coward, I chose to fight. At least if I die, let me die fighting. I fought for life even with my life! The best I could do was to hawk and I hawked my life out.
I was both a mobile and stationary hawker just to make sure that I had something to eat, a point to prove and a possibility to create. I would trek unimaginable distances with Picture Frames, Ice cream or whatsoever fate found for me to hawk. Sometimes, I will not make any sales. That will mean "no food" until the next day unless if the universe was kind enough to use a stranger to save me. Some other times, I will trek so far that the only way to get back to base will be for me to use the little profit I made for the day as my transport fare.
When trekking under the Unholy Ghana Sun couldn't cut it for me any longer, I became a Refuse collector. I carried Basket on my head and went round Makola Market parking trash for pay.
When that wasn't working any longer, I got a job in a Public toilet to wash shit for 500 cedis a day!
When that failed too, I became a scavenger, ransacking heaps of trash for metals I could sell for money.
Don't forget that I was less than 15 years old doing all these!

Despite all, I was still saving some money hoping that one day, I will become my own "Oga". But I was robbed of my money as many times as I saved it. My savings account was a small "Ghana must go Bag" which also doubled as my pillow. So it was easy for me to unmarry it in the middle of the night when I will be trying to pamper my body to few hours of sleep in the motor park. Since the marauders always watched out for the slackers and showed them no mercy, I always parted with my bag and money very often.

Having lost my third savings at this particular time, I was about to die. I had finally filled for detachment from the horrible experiences I faced. It took me my all to save that last money and I didn't see how I was ever going to get out of the whole mess. I laid in the park for days sick but no one cared. I lived in a place called "Animal kingdom". It was a Dog eat Dog kind of place where no one cared for you. The next man only waited for you to drop dead so that he could check you out for any valuable to use and support his own hustle. No time for weakness and there was no pity for the weak. For days, I had no food or drugs.
This night, as I laid by the corner, I could feel my breath leave me. I had lost consciousness of this place and all I saw were things I can't even explain till today.
Then it hit me for the first time that life is indeed a gift! For the first time, the true meaning of life, living, impact, legacy came to me and I questioned existence.
"Hmm, so this is how I will die and nobody will even notice!"
"When I was born, nobody knew, so I will also die and nobody will know or even care!"

These thoughts reduced me to tears. Then I chose to make a last prayer that eventually became my first and best prayer.
"Dear Lord, if You help me to survive this and move out of the streets alive, I will spend the rest of my life telling other people how I did it and teaching then how to do the same" I prayed.
Few hours later, a stranger found me, bought me drugs and food. And the next day, he took me off the streets!

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The STREETS TO STARDOM OUTREACH is a movement that will help me fulfill the promise which I made to God that night.
Come 1st of January 2018, I'm launching a campaign that will help move hawkers off the streets of Africa using references, experiences and modelling and I need you to help me make it possible. I believe that hawkers are the most vulnerable, most agile yet most neglected members of the society. Though these guys seek their daily bread under the Rain and Sun not minding all the accompanying dangers, they also have dreams and aspirations in their hearts. I know because I did!
In the wee hours of the night when the stomach has been fed, they look up in despair and wonder if life has anything else for them. I wondered too!
When they sell to those guys in the Rolls Roys, they wonder why God forgot their own Roses and gave them only the thorns. I thought so too!

The ultimate vision here is to help as many hawkers to either go back to school or start a more profitable but less dangerous business that will them off the roads and make them more useful to the society. There are many phases to the project but the one we begin with immediately is the outreach which involves feeding hawkers and giving them words, food, ideas, transformational books and some cognitive tools that can help them begin to think for themselves and understand that there is a higher purpose and calling to their lives.

But we can change this. We can give them not just HOPE, but an ANCHOR to their greatness. We can help them find that indomitable spirit of possibility and use it. We can create a chain reaction that can turn urchins into oysters. We can help them live again.

Will you join me on this journey?
Please share this post and let's make a miracle together.

You can join the discussion here:
https://chat.whatsapp.com/A0YxT0WIdP117kzKnbGVoU

By: Alex Iheanacho