They were her rocks and support system, but thankfully, her grandmother was able to take her under her wing and continue supporting her. However, due to Chihera’s grandmother’s elderly age and her unstable financial situation, she went through periods of time where she was unable to raise enough money to be able to fully support Chihera, which resulted in her having to drop out of school frequently, as there was not enough funds left over to pay for her school fees, stationery supplies and school uniforms.
Through meeting Chihera’s teachers at her school, we found out that she was incredibly bright, but due to her missing so many days of school at a time, she fell really behind in her studies, and where she should be academically, at the age that she is. This has unfortunately led her to perform below average in class, which does not showcase her true potential.
Through the holistic support that she now receives from the Catalyst Foundation, she is able to go to school consistently, which has enabled her to greatly improve her academic progress in the classroom. We were able to identify, through our health check examinations, a few health issues that Chihera had, such as an Urinary Tract Infection (UTI), having consistent headaches and hearing difficulties. From this analysis, we have now addressed all of these issues, and she is now perfectly healthy, and is able to hear properly with ease. Chihera’s family can now have three daily meals, and her grandmother is able to focus on providing and meeting the other needs of her family, as she does not have the burden of worrying about financially looking after Chihera, when it comes to her education.
Once Chihera finishes her secondary schooling, she has dreams of going to university to study Medicine, as she hopes to become a Doctor one day.
We asked Chihera to share with us in one sentence what the
Catalyst Foundation – S.H.E Programme means to her:
“I’m so happy to be part of the S.H.E Programme because I get to see different things that I was not exposed to before joining.”