Cecilia about herself:

My name is Cecilia Chiumia. I am a Malawian girl of 19 years old (2019). I am a third-born-daughter in a family of 6 children. For my father and my mother, I am the first-born-daughter of two children, I and my younger sister who is in standard 8. My mother died of Asthma. She past away when I was 6 years old and my younger sister was 4 years old.

(Explanation: Her father married and had two children before his wife died. He then married her mother and sadly, she also died. He now lives with his third wife and two young children, SO she has no one.)

We have been raised by our father only until I reached standard 8. My father remarried, himself and my stepmother have two children, are boys aged 4 years and 1 year. I completed my primary school at St Mary’s Girls and I was selected to Karonga CDSS, where I studied Form 1 to Form 4. For fees, we used to sell Mandasi (like doughnuts) and my father has to do some piece work to find the rest for me.

My father is a watchman, for which he receives a little salary which he just use it for buying food, paying water bill and paying rent for the house. I struggled to complete my secondary school. I worked hard and I passed my JCE in 2013, and my MSCE in 2015 in the following subject; English 3, Mathematics 3, Agriculture 3, Biology 4, Chichewa 4, History 5, Geography 5 and Physical Science 6. I have qualified and have been selected for the nursing course at St Johns College in Mzuzu. I met John and Mary Coyne and I asked them for fees assistance, but Wells For Zoë only pay secondary school fees. So they have offered me a volunteering job so that the money for wages will help me to buy nurses uniform, exercise books and other things. My father cannot afford to pay fees for me. Please! Please! Please! someone Help me with fees, without your help I will not complete my college. I promise to work hard and be an excellent nurse.

Cecilia arrived on our doorstep in St John of God’s in Katoto some months ago looking for assistance to become a nurse. How do things like this happen? How would I know? Maybe a bit of good fortune for us and her.

Now Cecilia, is our employee who has qualified for nursing because, as with most people looking for assistance, I offered her a job, and decided to keep her whether she managed to qualify for nursing or not (she is a joy to work with). She is getting, our minimum wage of 25000 MKw per month, which is about 1.30 Euro per day. She uses 8000 for food and we are saving there remainder for her (now to help with all the extra costs of nursing). Her fees will be about 1000 Euro per term, and should be paid by Government. The Government received millions mainly, from the US, Norway, Germany,to fund nurse training and healthcare but it appears to be gone missing but maybe it is just misplaced!

She is a great worker, so we will have to find her fees somewhere, we thought. But as I say sometimes, the Universe colludes and a very kind and generous couple have agreed to cover her fees for the first Year, YIPPEE.

We all think she is a keeper. And she is certainly focused and so determined to succeed. She is always happy and here she is in the extra picture cooking with Martha who was employed as the part time cook, but now works in the factory as well.

She had only had a short time typing but wrote the story above, so obviously learns quickly. Her real life was much harder than the picture she paints.