“Now my community see me as a role model and I to behave as one, I have become an inspiration to the young girls in my community being the first girl in my family to attend university.”

Rose is studying because “it is only through education that the African countries can be elevated from the vicious cycle of poverty.”

Rose is halfway through her bachelors degree in community health and development and she has developed a particular passion for issues around sexual health and rights, mental health, stigma and community based counselling.

Beyond her busy studying schedule, Rose has become “actively involved in advocacy work especially on adolescent reproductive health” and volunteers locally to educate young people. Having seen so many girls drop out of school due to early pregnancy, Rose’s objectives have changed a lot over the last year and she now takes her role as a community role model and educator even more seriously. For Rose, this shift in emphasis has already had a positive impact with the “number of school dropouts due to teenage pregnancy” in her community having declined in the last year due, in part, to the work she has been involved with.

Combining the knowledge she is gaining through study with active community work is Rose’s “dream come true”, she recognises the opportunity that her Watipa scholarship has provided and wants others to benefit from it too. Watipa has been more than a financial support for Rose, her favourite part of joining our programme has been joining “people from diverse backgrounds, who share a common goal, to pursue our shared dreams and give back to the community”.

Rose wants to be the “agent of change” that she wants to see in her community and, as both a programme scholar and Watipa ambassador we are so pleased she joined our “family of like-minded people.”

Isaac Barry