Most people are motivated in different ways to make their dreams come true. As kids growing up, we come into contact with different people who inspire us to pursue certain professions but there is always a pull factor that makes this dream a reality and Dr. Hawa pull factor to join the noble profession she has always admired as a child to dry the tears of her mum.
‘’ She went through a lot to see us grow. I never wanted to see her hard work go waste. I needed to learn and pass well.’’
Speaking to Sandra in the studios of Sanatu Zambang, Dr. Hawa, who is a gynecologist at the Tamale Teaching Hospital opens up about her way to the top. As a child growing, Dr. Hawa explains how she was always admitted in the hospital.
Each time she went to the hospital, she admired how the nurses and doctors dress smartly and did their work professionally at the 37 military hospital where she grew up due to her father being a soldier. ‘’It was very nice seeing them in their uniform.
Smartly dressed and acted professionally. I think it curves my interest’’. She says This interest led her to studied science in SHS at Tamale Senior High School (Tamasco). In a class of 47 students, the girls where only 5. She goes on to say how the boys in the class perceived her to be arrogant because she stood up to the patriarchy system in the school where girls are made to sweep the class based on their gender.
‘’We had to always stand up to them and match them booth for booth’’.
She goes on. After completing senior high school, she continued to medical school at the University of Ghana, Legon where she graduated with ten awards and did her houseman-ship in Cape Coast, Koforidua and Accra. Initially, she had wanted to specialize in pediatrics but her experiences at the Princess Luis Marie hospital in Accra changed her mind. ‘’A lot of Kayaye girls bring their children to the hospital and have no money to buy drugs for the convulsing babies. It was very heartbreaking seeing these children die because health insurance does not cover some of these treatments and mothers do not have the money to pay for the treatment’’.
‘’I realized that, if I was going to continue with the pediatrics, I will be very depressed. I change my mind, instead, I did obstetrics and gynecology which was my second favorite’’. She let on. Dr. Hawa has gone to Ghana College of physicians and surgeons and the West Africa college of the surgeon. In 2017 she had an award for the best female student at the West Africa College of Surgeons. According to her, the awards were not the primary target, the primary target was to pass her exams and see her patients’ get well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7ughO5BSnE
‘’But those are a little achievement, those are just for the papers and news’’. The best achievement she describe as ‘’when you see your patient get well, when you see a childless woman enters a room with a child, when you see a woman in so much pain ends up walking home, you feel inner joy, it does not translate to money but you feel good about yourself.’’
In the interview, she describes the whole process as difficult but says it is doable and workable. ‘’I went to do my membership program with a five months baby and in the middle of the program I had my second baby and I ended the program with my third baby. It is not easy but it is workable. It is possible to combine that with wifely duty and motherly duty, it is doable but it is difficult.’’
‘’What you need is a supportive husband and understanding spouse. My husband did support me a lot. At a point, my husband took care of the first child while I was still in school. ‘’ she added.
