This is the thirtheenth newsletter of the iSTEPup Foundation. In this newsletter, we present you our Annual Report of 2020! This newsletter also includes an introduction of two new students and other student updates! Furthermore, we are delighted to show you the pictures of Paul Kalungi's graduation ceremony!
iSTEPup in a nutshell
iSTEPup provides local scholarships for ambitious students to become a nurse, midwife, doctor or pharmacist in low- and middle income countries. In a transparent manner we aim to improve sustainability of basic healthcare by creating educational chances for motivated but underprivileged people. As many of our donors are international, newsletters are written in English.
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iSTEPup has published her annual report of 2020. Despite the pandemic, almost all of our donors remained loyal to us. There were even new donors who want to commit themselves to us for a long time. As a result, we were again able to achieve our goals this year!
Four new students have started a study in health care. We are extremely proud that the costs have again remained extremely low this year: more than 98 cents of every donated euro ended up with the student (& 2% international transaction costs)! We are very grateful to our sponsors and donors, who, together with us, make it possible to help such a great number of students realize their dream. Together we are working on a future with basic health care available for everyone! The annual report has been written in Dutch; an English summary is provided at the end.
Annual report 2020
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Abdul Ibrahim Kamara
Abdul Ibrahim is a 27-year-old nursing student from Sierra Leone. He had completed one study year before he contacted iSTEPup, since he had difficulties paying his tuition fee and was not allowed to continue his studies. As a paid volunteer in a hospital he could not earn enough money for his study, since he also has to take care for his wife and baby. We are happy to prevent Abdul Ibrahim from dropping out!
"It would not be possible for me to achieve my dream without the help of iSTEPup. It would have been impossible. I am coming from a family of 4 were I am the Second born. My mother and father separated when I was young. My elder brother is illiterate and poor leaving me to take care of my siblings and mother, and I don’t have anyone to help me. So I am very sure that without this great help, I would have had no choice but to drop out of college by now. The other fact is that, College, especially medical colleges in Sierra Leone is very expensive, so I wouldn’t be able to pay my own fees. To facilitate myself through College, I would need more than 5 years to save enough money to sustain myself through College."
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Fredy Joseph Nyakutu
Fredy Joseph is a new student from Tanzania! He has recently finished his secondary education, and wanted to start a study in pharmacy; however he could not pay tuition fee by himself.
Fredy Joseph contacted iSTEPup via his buddy Lieke, a medical student from the Netherlands, and due to his complete application, he could start his study in March 2021, within one month after the first contact!
"I have recently attained an O-level of education, during which I have learned to understand the value of learning. However, constant financial problems due to the heavy burden lying on my parents have made it impossible for me to attend college. I do engage in helping with the financial situation of my family by doing various jobs, but this has still proven to be insufficient.
I have committed myself to continue my education, so that I can help bring changes to my society. I want to provide pharmaceutical services to various places where there are no professional people and also to the world at large."
His personal page will be completed soon!
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Graduation ceremony of Paul Kalungi
"The 19th of March: my graduation. Its been four years down the road. I am extremely excited that I am among those lucky ones walking out of the university with a bachelors degree. I can't thank you enough because if it wasn't because of you my friends, I wouldn't have managed to keep my self in the university. I am now educated and employable, I feel I can work from anywhere in the world."
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Latest student updates
All updates can be found on the personal pages of our students. Click here for an overview and to find the individual pages of all iSTEPup students! Student updates are also regularly posted on our social media accounts Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter
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Hastings has started his third year in Nursing this week, he past his exams of the second semester last week.
Caroline (Medicine) is also in her third year, carrying out ward work, traveling by bus to and from hospital daily from Monday to Friday and also concurrently doing recess term course units over the weekend, 8 course units in total. This semester will end in mid-June, next semester will start in mid-month of June.
Angelina (Medicine) still has both physical and virtual classes but more of the physical classes. Clinical skills training has commenced and running smoothly.
After a period of new restrictions and online learning just two weeks after school reopened, Adwoa (Medicine) started from 22nd March, 2021, with her lessons and practicals in the hospital wards and lecture rooms.
Anna Marie has started her clinical rotations. Benjamin (Medicine) is also working in clinical rotations in four hospitals all located in Dar es salaam City. The last four month (last semester) was for Pediatrics clinical rotations. Now the coming four month (new semester) which started March 22, 2021 is for Internal medicine. One year left until his graduation!
Nurudeen Yakubu (Nursing), Mesfin Dagnaw (Nursing) and Nelson Lwomile (Clinical Officer) are expected to graduate this year!
The updates from Neema and Paul Kwofie will be posted soon. Allen Kaaya, who could not start his final year for clinical officer due to family circumstances, started his final year this winter! He already has some exams now: results and updates will be posted soon!
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Since more and more students are enrolling for the iSTEPup programme each year, we have made a worldmap as overview for our donors. Click on the image below to visit the worldmap, in which you can select for country or study and find additional information about our students!
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