‘It's Important Work’
As the day winds down at the waste yard, the hustle and bustle have subsided. Lydia Bamfo is busy with her youngest children, Nkunim, 10, and Josephine, 6, diligently emptying the final few bottles and preparing for another night. By 8 PM, she will retreat to bed, only to rise again at midnight for Bible studies and to begin work anew at dawn.
Bamfo’s journey into waste picking is far from what she envisioned for herself. At the age of 19, she obtained her school certificate and, with determination, saved enough from selling oranges to enroll in a secretarial course. However, the absence of a typewriter obstructed her progress, leading her to sketch the keyboard onto her exercise book, practicing on paper in hopeful anticipation of her future.
Despite her efforts, financial challenges forced her to abandon her dreams of an office job in favor of labor-intensive work at a construction site. “At that moment, I thought of myself as a failure, feeling the weight of the world against me,” Bamfo reflects. One fateful morning, she discovered that the construction site had vanished overnight, replaced by a waste dump filled with plastics and other refuse.
With five children sleeping nearby and her husband absent, Bamfo faced an urgent need for money to provide for her family’s meals. A friend had informed her that local factories would purchase plastic waste for a modest sum per kilogram, a reality that came with its own stigma and societal perceptions.
Bamfo shared the emotional toll of societal judgments. “When a woman is engaged in waste picking, people assume she lacks family support. They label her in derogatory terms,” she says. Her situation worsened when her husband left her, having informed her father of her new occupation in a belittling manner.
Straining her relationship with her father only compounded her struggles, prompting her to relocate with her children to a different part of the city. There, she established her own small waste management business, purchasing refuse from collectors and selling it to factories and recycling centers. Through perseverance, she built a wooden home and ultimately gathered the courage to reach out to her father.
“Come and see the work I do. It’s a source of pride, not shame,” she urged him. His subsequent visit to her yard and operations of Nkosoo Waste Management, which translates to “progress” in Twi, led him to admire her efforts, recognizing her tenacity.
Today, Bamfo is not only a provider but also an inspiration for others. Her supervisor, King, who once faced homelessness as a child living near a dumpsite, credits her with saving his life. “I cannot say a bad thing about her. She is my mother,” he affirmed.
As the night envelops Accra, the accumulation of plastic waste continues to rise. Yet, Bamfo has found a profound sense of dignity and purpose in her fight against pollution. “The work we do is vital,” she affirms. “Even though I sometimes feel saddened by unfulfilled educational dreams, I take pride in helping clean the city.”
This narrative, exemplifying resilience and empowerment, shines a light on the often-overlooked contributions of women in waste management and their ability to reclaim dignity from adversity.
This story was produced in partnership with ZezapTV.
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