Patricia

My name is Tamia Patricia; I live with my uncle and his children in Yumbe District. My parents and my 6 siblings live together in another town. My early childhood education was enjoyable until I reached "primary seven" when my parents said they could not afford to pay for my secondary school. I was devastated but my uncle offered to pay for my high school fees if I agreed to stay with him. I accepted but felt rejected and neglected by my family and never thought that I would be able to ever forgive my parents and older brothers.

While I was still dealing with unforgiveness, bitterness, anger and rejection I was introduced to Young Life. I got an opportunity to hear the gospel message in club and later accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior during a Young Life high school camp in 2020 at cabin time. This enabled me to forgive my family and have joy, peace and love within me. Since then, I have been growing in my relationship with Jesus Christ and being developed as a leader. I try as much as I can to emulate the way the gospel was preached to me in my leadership of my kids.

As the first person to attend university in my family, I am forever grateful for the Developing Global Leaders program. I look forward to studying for a Bachelor of Science in Environment and Natural Resources at Muni University. I hope to help my community with solutions to curb environment related challenges and create healthy ways of using natural resources.