MS. ESTHER DALYOP GWOM
"CHANGING LIVES, GIVING HOPE, IMPACTING HAPPINESS"
Location: Vom Jos South, Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria.
Date: October 10th, 2022
This is the story of Esther Dalyop Gwom Esther Dalyop Gwom is a 25-year-old physically challenged lady from the family of late Mr Dalyop Vang Dong and the sixth child in a family of 14 now living in Vom, Jos south local government area. Esther became crippled at the age of 11 as a result of a fall. She was taken to the hospital by her parents and after series of treatment, they were told that Esther will never walk again. She was able to continue her primary school education but could not proceed to secondary school after the death of her father in 2007. Due to the neglect by her family members, she left home to stay with an aunt of hers who later assisted with some money to start a small business ‘’Frying Akara’’. But for want of space, Esther’s aunty told her to leave the house because her son was getting married. Esther started frying akara on the street without hope of attending school for 11 years.
From her small business, she pays her house rent of 8,000 naira yearly, and electricity bill of 1,500 naira monthly. After 11 years of no secondary education, she lost her reading and writing skills completely. In 2018 she resumed secondary education, and started paying her school fees of 6,500 naira every session i.e. 4 months on average in a government secondary school in fort Vwang but started from JSS2 and is now in SS2. To fend for herself, she still has to fry Akara every evening after school and during holidays. Esther's little savings from her business was stolen from her room and that deterred her from paying school fee. As a result, she could not write her recent promotional exam which prevented her from moving to the next class i.e. SS2 to SS3.
Furthermore, Esther’s first session in SS2 was challenging in the sense that she could not understand Mathematics and English properly so she decided to repeat SS2 in order to assimilate.
As a young girl who is physically challenged since childhood, Esther has been hardworking in terms of fending for herself and has determined to achieve quality education, though, she is still faced with challenges such as lack of funds in furthering her education, and shortage of funds to pay her bills.
After interviewing her, assessing and verifying her story, UPVAC in collaboration with Algier12properties Ltd intervened in her situation.
On 10th October, 2022, we paid her school fees, bought her new school uniform and writing materials. We also paid her NECO and WAEC fees respectively.
Universal Peace and Violence Amelioration Centre UPVAC remains actively committed to promoting and demonstrating a high sense of socio-economic responsibility, while carrying out humanitarian outreaches, engaging in peace and violence amelioration activities globally and enhancing public safety in collaboration with various local, national and international agencies.
