My story

My life is surrounded with hope and dedication. When I was young, I lost my father and thought that was the end of the world. I lost hope because I only had my mother who was a farmer. She started taking care of me from then till now. We used to go to the garden together in order to get food and sell them for money to pay my fees. When I was in primary Eight level, life became hard and we lost everything in the garden. I thought of a plan that would help me pursue my education in which I started dancing. Dancing was one of my talents. One day, I went to a wedding ceremony with one of my friends to perform for the bride. We got the chance to perform and got a lot of money from the performance. I was so excited that I’m going to pay my school fees and the requirements that were needed to complete primary level. I went to school and paid my tuition for the whole year and I was so happy. I sat for my examination and passed well with good grades. I was grateful and had hope that, I will join secondary school.

When I joined secondary school, life was not also easy for me but I continued dancing and getting money to pay for myself. One day, I heard of a company that sponsors orphans to school. I took courage and went to their office to ask for support. They couldn’t help me out because there was no vacancy. I couldn’t give up and kept going there and crying for help. One day, they sent me home for not paying tuition fees. I was out of words and put my problems on God. Something told me to go again to their office and I was like, if I go there, will they accept me? I just had to go and try it out. I went there and knelt down, crying for them to help me out because I had no one to help me out but I wanted to study. They told me that, there’s one vacant place which was available and they are not sure that they can give it to me. I continued crying and telling them how much I love school. Finally, they took me to school and paid for my tuition fees for the whole year. I was so grateful and appreciated them for the support they offered to me. They included my name in the list of orphans and I got access to the help that others were getting. We had to be going there every end of the months to collect soap, sugar, and other items. I then stopped dancing to focus on my school to get good grades because dancing was taking me time to do my work on time.

In my second year in secondary school, I became the head girl for my school and was happy to serve students and share my experiences with them. I ruled for two years and led to victory over many schools. I was also good at debates and quizzes. One day, we had the chance to go and debate with other schools where we won and got the best results. We were given an award for winning and took it to our school. My head teacher was so happy and gave us much thanks and words of encouragement. I empowered other girls not to give up on education because they are poor or do not people to sponsor to sponsor them. They can get help out there just like I did. We had fantastic experiences together with them, celebrated success, and completed school together. Leadership was always my passion and I was also willing to help others with what I had.

When I completed my secondary school, I stayed for one year without joining University because those people ended helping me in secondary and could not continue to University. Within that one year of not going to school, I went looking for any job that would sustain me and my mother. I found one job as a shop attendant. I worked there for eight month and when I made money that could help me in getting my documents such passport, National identification, and National Examination Certificate, I then stopped selling and traveled to the city to get my documents. I got them within two month and started applying for scholarships. I didn’t want to stay without schooling. I applied for so many scholarships and didn’t succeed in any. Still, I didn’t give up and I continued to apply. One day, I saw an advertisement about African Leadership University on Facebook. I then started applying online through there website and it took me one week to complete the application because of the requirements that were needed. When I submitted my application, it took me only one week to get admission and was only waiting for financial aid decision. After one month, I got an email of congratulations from the financial aid department telling me that I won scholarship to African Leadership University in Rwanda. Teas of joy were coming out of my eyes and I was so grateful. The scholarship covered all my needs and including transportation to the Rwanda. Today, I am studying because of hard work and dedication.

In conclusion, I want to say this; never let your thoughts and problems to overcome you but find a way to overcome them. Find your talent and make use of it because it might be the solution to your problems. To all the ladies out there, never let any man deceive you for anything. Your future is in your hands. You have the right to say yes or no to whatever that comes across your way. Always stay plosive and ready to face your fears. Thank you for considering my story and I hope you get some inspiration from it.