Masika Ali is 26 years old and has been a beneficiary of Hatua Likoni since 2007. Masika first heard about Hatua Likoni back in 2006 when she was in Class 8. Kwame and Gabi had visited her school looking for bright students from poor backgrounds to join their scholarship program. Masika comes from a single parent household with 5 other siblings. Since her mother had no job Masika had no hopes of continuing to secondary school as she knew they would not be able to afford it. Her hope however was restored when Masika’s headmaster nominated her after she met Hatua’s KCP results standards. Soon after she was accepted into Hatua Likoni’s scholarship program and has been one of our model students. Masika has since shown us immeasurable amounts of passionate when it comes to helping others whether it be in our peer mentoring program, in her schooling, or in her work. She states that, “Hatua’s peer mentoring program has helped me to expand my thinking capacity and skills. It’s giving me the confidence to continue helping others.”
We are extremely excited for Masika as she is currently attending the Technical University of Mombasa and is on track to graduate this December 2015 with a diploma in Laboratory Sciences! Masika has not only gained success academically but she has excelled in Hatua’s Career Mentorship Program. She is grateful to her mentor who is also a laboratory technician at Kwale Hospital because she has offered her many insights into her field and has helped secure her a number of different work opportunities.
This type of relationship is exactly what Hatua had envisioned when we launched the Career Mentoring Program, we wanted our students to gain more experience in their fields of interest, begin networking, and find work shortly after completing school if not earlier and Masika is well on her way of doing just that!