Facility Coordinator at Future of Africa, Eunice Nusimebia Agbenyegah, shares her personal experiences with former street residents.
Meet Eunice
Eunice Agbenyegah has always had a passion for helping people, especially young people who have had similar life experiences as hers. Finding an opportunity to work with Future of Africa is one that she believes was destined to happen.
“As a young girl from Dwamena, a village in the Eastern region of Ghana, where dropping out of school has been normalised, I found it very interesting how much effort went into getting children off the streets in order to have a better life, good education, and new opportunities,” says Eunice.
“At age 14 I saw my age mates getting married, having kids and essentially giving up on the idea of pursuing further education after basic school,” says Eunice. “I, on the contrary, knew that I was going to pursue a mathematics related course after I failed my mathematics exam in Basic Education Certificate Examination. I have always seen setbacks as a reason to come back stronger in many situations in my life, so working at FOA gives me an opportunity to share my experiences with the kids.”
Eunice struggled to put herself through school, after deferring from University twice and later dropping out due to financial constraints. She worked multiple jobs to support her mother and siblings. Eunice was introduced to FOA in 2019 after working with Nikki and TK, the founder of FOA. She fell in love with FOA’s mission to improve the wellbeing of children in street situations.
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What I really want in life is to help every kid I come into contact with and make a positive impact in their life no matter how low they feel. For my plans in furthering my education, I believe God’s time is the best.
After starting off as Norviwo’s Food Services Coordinator, Eunice recently took on a new role as Facilities Coordinator where she is in charge of food services, facility maintenance and the wellbeing of residents. Eunice shares that “this new role challenges me because I am naturally very shy and reserved, but in order to play my part to help former street residents stay and embrace change, I have no choice but to come out of my shell, and I am actually enjoying this new transformation.”
“Sometimes I know I can never understand what trauma or difficulties they have been through, but it saddens me to see them throw away golden opportunities to start their lives afresh,” lamented Eunice.
Eunice understands the struggles of coming from an economically disadvantaged background. Her past experiences drive her to work even harder at Norviwo, to ensure children in street situations are given a chance to reach their full potential.
“Sometimes I know I can never understand what trauma or difficulties they have been through, but it saddens me to see them throw away golden opportunities to start their lives afresh,” lamented Eunice.
Eunice understands the struggles of coming from an economically disadvantaged background. Her past experiences drive her to work even harder at Norviwo, to ensure children in street situations are given a chance to reach their full potential.
One of Eunice’s dreams is to see Norviwo grow to provide more opportunities for children in street situations and for the children to heal, trust the process, and embrace positive change. “Having been in situations similar to what these street kids are in, I know what it feels like to have your dreams shatter, “ confesses Eunice.
“I know how daunting life seems and I try not to allow this feeling to break these kids down. Very often some of the kids confide in me about how bad they have been and how they feel like God will never forgive them for some of the vices they have been involved in. While that is not a reason to give up, I believe sometimes all these kids need is someone to talk to and someone to motivate them and this is what drives me to do my work.” - Story By Nadia Amasa
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If we can get even one kid off the street to become a prominent person in the future, it will give one more street resident some hope to strive to get a better life.