“It was not like I didn’t like nursing but I had my mind set on teaching. Back at school, I used to like teaching people what I knew.”
While Jonathan Aputele Ayinbire may not have set out to become a nurse, he’s found a new passion in helping to save lives within the Nabdam District of the Upper East Region after studying at Community Health Training School, Navrongo. He’s also doing well for himself as a fashion designer.
“As a community health nurse, we are there to help with preventive health care. We go to houses to visit. We check the environment and check very little things.”
When Mr. Ayinbire visits the homes of residents within the communities he works, he is looking out for a few things; “how are the bowls arranged? Are they in a safe place? Is the environment clean? Are there flies within the homes?”
Answers to these questions help him advise community members on how to live their lives in a way that doesn’t lead to hospitalization.
Mr. Ayinbire, aged 27, is from Zuraungu, the district capital of Bolgatanga East, a district carved out of the Bolgatanga Municipality in the Upper East Region.
He grew up in a relatively comfortable household. As he puts it, “not too hard, not too soft either.” He’s a product of the Zamse Senior High Technical School. At the school, he studied science and completed in 2013.
Mr. Ayinbire, after Junior High School (JHS), even before going to Zamse SHTS, he found himself running a mini ‘communication centre’. There, he sold airtime, and made calls on behalf of persons who did not have their own phones et al. After SHS, he again went into the sale of fertilizers and seeds under the tutelage of a mentor.
With the past experience of committing to business after the completion of JHS and SHS, Mr. Ayinbire knew he would not want to stay at home after his stint at the Community Health Training School, Navrongo while awaiting government posting.
A number of ideas run through his mind; running a car/motorbike washing centre, learning to drive; possibly for commercial purposes, learning carpentry and joinery.
1st November, 2016, Mr. Ayinbire completed tertiary education, pondering on what to do next, the idea of sewing came up. He quickly apprenticed with a fashion designer well known to the family.
“I used to go sleep there [at the tailoring shop], just to work with him because I was the first serious apprentice to be with him. Whatever he sews, I see it and try doing same.”
“I can remember my first shirt and trousers I sewed just for myself. He cut the cloth for someone’s trousers. So I thought to myself, the person’s trousers he cut, the person was bigger than I was. So I thought, why not cut according to what he cut? So I did that and trimmed it to fit me and then I sewed it.”
Mr. Ayinbire admitted that combining nursing and sewing is not an easy feat. It takes a lot from him.
“It took me about a year to stabilize myself. You come back from work [nursing], and they tell you that someone has come to leave a cloth for you to sew. You are even at the workplace and then people are calling to ask whether I am home or not so that they will bring their cloths. It hasn’t been easy combining nursing and sewing.”
“Sometimes, you have to wake up at 3am or 4am and do some sewing before leaving for the health facility at 7am,” he said.
While having two steady streams of income, Mr. Ayinbire says, “it is not easy living in Ghana.”
Starting up a business in Ghana, according to Mr. Ayinbire, is not an easy task.
“As a young person who has started fashion, how to even get a place; own container to set up is not easy. I just started doing a container and when you see the container and they tell you I have spent Ghc6,000 on it, you would not believe it.”
“When the president is like the youth should go into enterprenuership, I am like, how would they [young people], get, for example, a machine of Ghc2,600? Very recently I asked of it again, it has gone to Ghc3,000. How would a young person be able to gather that much money to run a business? I see it not to be easy.”
While still setting up a shop, Mr. Ayinbire currently sews from a tiny part of his apartment. Despite the initial challenges, he is hopeful that in the coming years, he would be succesful at 2 things; his work as a nurse and his work as a fashion designer.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
