A Nurse’s Tale | Witness

Filmmaker: Kim Hopkins

In Ghana, Lydia Kwashie is a highly trained midwife, but with a family of eight to support, she can barely make ends meet/

The 48-year-old mother left behind family and friends in Ghana to seek work as a nurse in the UK.

As she is not the only one. Out of her class of 71 graduates, more than half have left Ghana because of conditions even in the best Ghanian hospitals are dire.

Patients line the corridors on make-shift stretchers while their families have to forage for everything from drugs, to bandages and food.

Despite the difficulties settling into a new culture, she returns to Ghana after 15 months with tales and independence and a decent salary.

Lydia feels a desire to return but until the government can offer similar protection for state workers in Ghana, her children’s future demands that she earns a steady income in Europe.

Filmmaker Kim Hopkins followed Lydia on her first trip back home to Ghana to share the conflicting emotions of pride, joy, guilt, and hope.

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