First generation graduate, Bello Yemisi Afusat from Nigeria
My family is from Lagos State Nigeria. I am from a polygamous family. My father has four wives and sixteen children. My mother is the last wife and I am the fourteenth child of my family. I have a Bachelor of Education degree and I am the first girl in my family to graduate.
It was a great experience to achieve this certificate. My father was eager to educate his children but my elder sisters were not serious with their studies and ended up becoming pregnant so he refused to sponsor their education. My father died when I completed primary school and there was nobody to assist my mother with my education. My mom asked me to stay with my grandmother. l continued secondary education with God’s grace.
When l finished my secondary examination, my grandmother died. My mother asked me to learn tailoring but l promised her that l will focus on my studies. I put in for NCE which l graduated from in the year 2000. After completing the NCE my mother died. Her death really gave me a problem because my father’s relatives refused to assist me with my education, so l got married. Since I am jobless, my husband’s family started disturbing me after l gave birth to my first child, so l decided to go and teach in a private school where l worked for six years before I was employed as a Lagos State worker in the year 2009. With this employment, l proceeded to take my degree. Thank God I am now a degree holder. It made me a star in the family because most of my sisters look up to me. Though, it is a pity that my father, grandmother and mother were not alive to eat from my wealth. My hope for my children is for them to be educated and more successful than me.