Adja

My name is Steeven and I live in a suburb of Abidjan called Abobo, one of the most densely populated communes in Cote d'Ivoire. My parents separated when I was six years old after a period of fighting and I went to live with my mother, all of which was traumatizing. My father lived in the same town but never tried to reach us. My mother paid my school fees from primary school until I graduated from secondary school, as I could not depend on my father to help. My mother sold bread and other goods to help me succeed. I was a good student but unable to continue my education for lack of resources in spite of working multiple jobs to help provide for my family.

My mother always had faith in God and from a very young age she brought me every time she went to church. Though I grew up in church, I just went there to please my mother and had no personal relationship with God. As a teenager, I started to rebel because I felt that my mother wanted to control me, and the absence of my father was like a weight, too heavy to bear. When I started going to Young Life clubs, it allowed me to get closer to Christ over time and with the help of other people. I started relying on God and trusting Him and letting go of everything that bothered me.

Through the Developing Global Leaders scholarship my vision is to continue and complete my studies in electrical engineering at the National Graduate School of Energy, Water, and the Environment. My goal is to be able to find a job in my field and to make my parents proud. Finally, I want to continue to share my story and impact the lives of other teens through Young Life ministries.