Triplets, times three

I wrote this story with a reporter from Obuasi, in Ghana's Central Region. I think I'm going to visit Obuasi to do a more indepth version, but in the meantime, here's the Chronicle story:

Triplets, times three:
the plight of one exceptional family
By Albert Nana Asante and Wendy Sawatzky

Madam Awisiwaa (seated in the middle) flanked by Mrs. Juliana Esi Eduoku (left) and Mr. Samuel Atta Clayman (right) and the seven of her eight surviving children.

Most couples hope to be blessed with children during their marriage. But for a family in New Akaporiso, a suburb of Obuasi in the Ashanti Region, the miracle of children has become a calamity as the birth of one set of triplets was followed by another and then yet another.

After giving birth to three sets of triplets, Madam Aba Awisiwaa and her husband, Mr. Kwabena Ebo, found themselves the parents of nine children in as many years.

The couple was first surprised eight years ago with the birth of identical triplets Samuel, Isaac and David Atta Clayman. They were followed four years later by Mary, David and Juliana, and then finally the babies of the family, eight-month-old Mark and Martha, whose sister Abigail died shortly after delivery.

Extremely rare

Cases of one woman giving birth to three sets of triplets are exceptionally uncommon. Only a handful of such cases have been reported anywhere in the world.

Dr. Samuel Osei Somuah, Obuasi Municipal Director of Health Services, said triplets are not common in the area and he has never seen another case like Madam Awisiwaa’s.

“Generally, she has a very fertile group — that means she gives too many eggs at a time for a man to fertilize,” he told Social Justice.

Dr. Somuah said several possibilities were available in Madam Awisiwaa’s case. “She either gave three eggs to give three non-identical twins, or two eggs to give two identical twins and one non-identical. [Or] all the three can be identical,” he explained.

Madam Awisiwaa’s father believes the situation may be hereditary, as he himself is a twin and he said there are many cases of twins in the family.

The births, however, leave Madam Awisiwaa at risk of future health implications, Dr. Somuah said, especially in further pregnancies. He advised that she seek family planning services, as her womb might now be too weak for further pregnancies.

For her part, Madam Awisiwaa said she did not use family planning services after the birth of her first set of triplets because, at the time, she wanted more children. She considered family planning after her second pregnancy, but still she did not undertake such services.

Even now, she told Social Justice, she would consider having more children, if she were able and could provide for them.

Father abandoned family

The possibility of more children in the future is, however, the least of Madam Awisiwaa’s concerns.

Taking care of eight children would be a financial challenge for any couple, but the difficulties intensified into a crisis for Madam Awisiwaa last year when her husband, a former block layer, abandoned the family after the delivery of the youngest children.

“My husband left us because he realized he could not take care of us,” a tearful Madam Awisiwaa, 31, told Social Justice. The family believes Mr. Kwabena Ebo is in Nyanfoako Akrofo in the Central Region, but said all efforts to persuade him to return to Obuasi to perform his fatherly duties have proved futile.

As a result, the family now depends on Madam Awisiwaa’s 53-year-old mother, Mrs. Juliana Esi Ekuadua, for survival.

“Whether we will eat or not depends on my mother, who only sells kenkey, because my husband is not taking care of us,” Madam Awisiwaa said.

The overwhelmed young mother, who hails from Akrofu Nkwanta in the Central Region, now lives in a single room with her eight children, her mother, and her 62-year-old father, Samuel Atta Clayman, a farmer who said his crops have not yielded well, leaving him with nothing to offer his daughter’s large family.

The three generations live in a small thatched house, roofed with bamboo. The home is dilapidated and the roof leaks when it rains, leaving the 11 family members at the mercy of the elements. The children’s grandfather said the family’s most immediate need is roofing sheets to keep the weather out of their small house.

Unable to afford school fees

Madam Awisiwaa, however, is more concerned with the children’s future than the family’s current circumstances. She says her most pressing problem is her inability to raise the school fees for the three eldest triplets.

“Settling of school fees of my children all this while has been my biggest problem as I am committed to their education,” said Madam Awisiwaa, who was, herself, forced to drop out of school at the junior secondary level because her own parents could not afford the fees.

The eldest triplets had been attending the Rising Sun Academy, a private school in the Obuasi municipality. However, a check at the school revealed that one child, David Atta Clayman, has already been withdrawn due to non-payment of tuition fees. The proprietor of the school, Nana Kwaw Addo, did not hide his intention to expel the other two if the mother fails to settle the fees.

Mr. Addo said the family needs to come up with ¢866,000.00 – half of the amount to pay their outstanding debt, and the rest for cover of the cost of tuition for the current academic term. [note: 866,000 cedis is about $108 in Canadian funds]

Less expensive public schools are available in the area, but Madam Awisiwaa said private schools perform much better and she wants the children to have the best possible educational foundation. Indeed, statistics available at the Obuasi Municipal Education Office confirm that private schools in the municipality perform far better than public schools.

However, the family may be left with little choice as far as which school to attend – or even whether school is possible at all — especially as the younger children attain school age and Madam Awisiwaa faces tuition bills totaling millions of cedis per year.

Social Justice believes NGO’S, churches, organizations and the general public as a whole have a role to play in the upbringing of these eight innocent children.

Anyone interested in assisting with the plight of Madam Awisiwaa and her children can contact Social Justice reporter Albert Nana Asante in Obuasi, tel. 024 385 51 04.