! This student has already found a sponsor for her first year !
Eugenia Mgunda
Form IV
Bena Tribe (Irigna Region)
Born 5 April 1989 in Iringa
Favorite subjects:
All science subjects
Future dreams:
Eugenia wants to be a doctor who is operating. If she can’t be a doctor, she would like to be an engineer, concerning herself with building roads or electricity. Eugenia asks herself why nobody in her country can manage to provide all the people fairly with electricity.
Hobbies:
Eugenia loves reading novels. She likes listening and singing gospel music, and has just recorded a CD with six other girls. Eugenia wrote the text for the last song.
Her parents:
Eugenia’s father was a policeman. When she was 2, he returned from a trip very sick. A few days later he died. Nobody really knew why, but there is the rumor that he died because he was elected village leader and many people were envious of him. Eugenia’s mother died when she was twelve of a common disease.
Her siblings:
Eugenia has a brother and a sister (both older). After her mother’s death, she lived together with them.
Her guardian:
Eugenia doesn’t have a guardian. When her money is gone, she usually goes during holiday to her sister to work on the farm and earn some pocket money, which has to last for the next one and a half years.
How Eugenia came to Bethsaida:
Her relatives told her that they could only think about giving her money for secondary school if she was a boy. A nun took her to a convent, where Eugenia attended a tailoring school and completed her first year. One of the sisters there told her about Bethsaida. When Eugenia passed the examination and the interview she was number 21 out of more than 100 girls. She first went home again, because she was not among the 20 girls selected. A few weeks later she got a call, because another student dropped out of Form I and, after harvesting her small field, Eugenia could sell the crops to buy a bus ticket to Dar es Salaam.
What Eugenia wants others to know about her:
Eugenia says that she needs the support from a sponsor so as to be independent, and to help others. She says, “Somebody showed me the way to pass, so it’s my duty to help others find the way in their lives.” She thinks that without Bethsaida she would have probably passed away by now. All her classmates from Primary school are either dead or have many children.
! This student has already found a sponsor for her first year !