ISHI ODAMTTEN FOUNDATION
My name is Tsatsu Kingsley, born in a small village in the Volta region of Ghana called Penyi. My father is a driver and a farmer. He has twenty (20) children with eight (8) different women that I will call step Mothers. My mother left my father with me after my birth. My mother took care of me all by herself until I completed Junior High School when the court decided I stay with my father for my Senior High School level education. So I had to move to Eastern region of Ghana, where my father lived. Staying with my father was very challenging. He hardly pays my school fees, even money to buy food to eat is a problem. Even though I was staying with my father, I felt I had no father. My mother sometimes will have to send me money and it wasn't easy.
After I completed Senior High school, I moved to Accra where I stayed in a construction site in an uncompleted building because I don't have anywhere else to stay while I look for a job. I wanted to work because I needed to save money to support myself in the future. I started working in a restaurant called Marwako as a waiter. Life in Accra wasn't easy since you don't get support from anywhere. Saving money became very difficult for me because whatever I get, I will have to use it to feed myself, but everything changed when I served a family that came to eat in my restaurant, that is Mr. Ishmael O. Odamtten the projects coordinator for Ishi Odamtten foundation and his family. I almost shed tears when he said I will go to school and he is going to help me. That night was my best not just because Mr. Ishmael O. Odamtten said he will help me, but I also got a good tip from him, but then I was still worried. To me it's strange, someone you had never seen before wants to help you go to school, that to the university. Even though I wanted to go to the university, I know it's impossible for me but thanks to this great opportunity given to me by Ishi Odamtten foundation. I am now in level 200 in the University of Cape Coast in Ghana. I still can't believe am in the university, though it's not easy but am very happen being the first among my siblings to go the university.
I want to use this opportunity to thank Mr. Ishmael O. Odamtten and his wife Mrs. Rosamond Odamtten for giving me this opportunity and I pray that the foundation will continue to grow and support more people like me.