Heading into the Future with a Strong Foundation!
Scholarships, Success, and Graduation
Aug 4 2020
Many students have been recipients of the Asante Africa Foundation’s higher education Scholarship Program. These students have overcome numerous familial, financial, and social hardships. Scholarship assistance has played a decisive role in keeping these students in school and enabled them to pursue higher education. This helping hand has inspired these students to “Pay-it-Forward” not only within their families and school but also in their communities.
Scholarship recipients that are graduating this year have overcome many personal challenges and have sharpened their skills and knowledge through after school clubs and starting revenue-generating projects. Each graduate hopes to put their education to good use, find a job, earn to support and elevate the circumstances of their families, and give back to their community.
Here are some success stories of Asante Africa’s higher education
Scholarship Program and Graduation
Lepilali, Tanzania, giving back the community by providing medical help and education
Lepilali is the second born of five siblings from a poor Maasai family in Tanzania. After graduating from primary school, Lepilali’s family had no money to send him to high school. In order to help his family financially, Lepilali began selling charcoal by the roadside. Encouraged by his older brother and an Asante Africa Program Manager, Lepilali enrolled in secondary school with dreams of becoming a doctor. With an Asante Africa scholarship, Lepilali will receive his medical degree this year and continue to a year-long internship. His goal is to become a heart surgeon.
Asante Africa Foundation has played an instrumental role in improving the life of Lepilali. As someone who loved school and enjoyed learning, Lepilali found his dreams of higher education with Asante Africa. Taking advantage of LEI workshops, Lepilali participated as a student and later as a mentor and facilitator. His many pay-it-forward projects have had the central theme of medical help and education.
When he was in secondary school, Lepilali befriended an albino boy and helped him by buying protective clothing, sunglasses, and a hat. Last year, Lepilali found the same friend, now 14 years old, suffering from numerous skin conditions, severe spinal curvature, and having lost sight in one eye. He took responsibility and brought his friend to several doctors to get his skin condition treated. He set up a Go Fund Me campaign to get his friend a back brace and to get his back treated. Lepilali also helped his friend get into boarding school and with help from Asante Africa Foundation.
As a medical student, Lepilali conducted many workshops to educate girls on adolescent cervical and breast cancer. He has also conducted many health seminars and was responsible for organizing a large blood donation drive in Moshi. In 2019, Lepilali’s efforts were rewarded when he won recognition for the girls’ health project on breast and cervical cancer that he started for secondary school-aged girls.
Rahel, Tanzania, best student and a software engineer
After losing her father at a young age, Rahel and her six siblings were raised by their mother. Only Rahel and another sibling could attend secondary school because of their limited income. Rahel joined the Asante Africa scholarship program in 2012 when she was in class 4. She has consistently done well in her classes and attended several LEI summits. After doing well in her exit exams from Form 4, Rahel qualified to join A Level Form 5. However, she was recruited by Arusha Technical College and decided to skip Forms 5 and 6. In 2019, Rahel graduated with a diploma from college with a 3.9 GPA. She was also recognized as the “Best Student” in her college. Her hard work has qualified her to attend university. Her desire is to become a software engineer. However, due to a clerical error, Rahel was not able to join the university last fall and will be joining this fall.
Naishuro, Hard work paved a way forward for girl education
Naishuro is credited with being the first scholarship recipient and the impetus for the existence of Asante Africa Foundation. One of six children, she was going to be married off while still in primary school in exchange for a cow. A scholarship served as a medium to convince her parents to let her stay in school. Naishuro’s case convinced Erna Grasz, CEO of Asante Africa Foundation, to set up an organization to facilitate the equitable distribution of funds to make sure that scholarships were benefiting students directly.
Currently, Naishuro is in her final year at the university and plans on finding employment and improving her family’s financial condition. As she is completing her studies, Naishuro is engaged in many pay-it-forward projects. She is volunteering as a teacher at her village school and raises chicken as a revenue generating project. She hopes to use her income to set up more pay-it-forward projects.
Naishuro’s example has prompted a change in her father’s ideas about girls’ education. He even sold several of his goats to fund his other daughter’s education. Naishuro has promised her father that she would buy him a bull when she graduates. Her example has not only inspired many others but served as a source of improvement and change for many through Asante Africa Foundation.
Samuel, Continuing education, Degree in Mathematics and hope to become an accountant
Samuel was raised by his single mother in a small village. His mother earns her living by working on other people’s farms and cleaning houses. A scholarship from Asante Africa Foundation enabled Samuel to continue with his education. Samuel is finishing his university studies and is getting a degree in mathematics with the hope to become an accountant.
His desire is to get a good job and accumulate enough money to start his own business. He is already working on a savings plan and is proud of his self-sufficiency and self-esteem.
All of our students are on the path to achieving their dreams! Support a student today, and give them a chance to thrive in their communities and start building the life they deserve.