I am Matilda Ayeltige, a young lady of 27 years. My parents are Peter Anaba, he works as a security man and Helen Ayeltige who is a dressmaker. I come from a village called Sakoote in the Upper East region. Growing up as a little girl born into a humble home, I never had in mind to go to the university because I knew my parents will not be able to afford my school fees. But I had the dream of becoming a responsible woman in future. During my school days learning was difficult because I did not have access to text books and other learning materials. This affected me so much that I could not pass all my papers at the secondary school level, so I had to work for registering and paying for private exams. I became my own teacher, taught myself and wrote the exams. I passed and had admission to the university.
Since my parents didn’t have the money to send me to the university I had to go in for a student loan with conditions that when I complete school I would work and pay the government back. Life in the university was challenging. I remember days I had to drink water and go for lectures because I did not have money to buy food. But with all this I never gave up on my studies.
Finally, after four years in the university, I came out successfully with a Second class upper Bachelor of Arts in Rural and Community Development. Now, I have completed my national service and there is no job for me, I decided to volunteer at Youth Harvest Foundation Ghana, an organization that built up my self-confidence of speaking up especially in public when I became a member of the Harvest club and their Newsletter committee back in 2007 in my secondary school days. Being a club member in my secondary school days, I had a lot of exposure especially during reproductive health education discussion. Coming from an African background, I never had the opportunity to openly speak about my reproductive health but when I became a member of the harvest club, I freely discussed issues related to reproductive health with my colleagues. We as club members shared our reproductive health issues and also talked about some of the changes we go through as time goes on. My confidence in speech increased when I had to represent my school as a newsletter committee member. I was eager to perform well and gain a good report for my school. And I do remember very well when I was president of the newsletter committee, I led discussions in most of our meetings. It was great experience and help my personal development a lot.
Having completed my University studies and still being unemployed, I have decided to volunteer at the youth Harvest Foundation Ghana, because I want to gain more experience and build my CV for the unknown job opportunity in the future. As a young woman myself, I have the passion to work with my fellow youth because I’m going through similar challenges just as my colleagues youth, and since we are all into these similar challenges I trust working with them will make it easier to address and find if not lasting solutions to our problems.
I would like to pursue my Master’s Degree in Development studies or Social work so that I can further my academic approach on how to address those pressuring issues within my country – let alone improve life for the young generation in this continuous changing world we live in. I’d like to assist emotionally by sharing knowledge and encouraging them especially the women in society to stand up for a self-determined life.
This dream seems to be difficult to come true because of lack of finance to acquire further education and my family is not able to support me. That’s why reached out to seek for help and someone’s support to further my education.
My aim is to reach the highest ladder in academia and also become a successful inspirational speaker with great entrepreneurial skills.