NELSON LEKITASHARAN
NCCK SAVED MY EDUCATION
My name is Nelson Dorias Lekitasharan. I am 22 years old. I hail from Samburu West Sub-county, Logorate village. I come from a pastoral community that seriously value their cultural practices. “A man marries several wives as a prestige and signs of wealth” owing to this fact, my father has three wives, my mother being the elder of the other two. I was born as a 3rd born of the 8 kids, now siblings.
Education was never a priority to my father since he kept a lot of emphasis on the larger herd of cattle that we all cherished. There was no permanent home for us since we occasionally migrated from one region to another following the rains patterns. I was first enrolled in Laikipia ranching primary school in 2003. In 2006 my education because to a sudden halt due to cattle rustling and clashes between the communities in the area. I was later enrolled to Maralal primary school in 2007 where I studied and finished my primary school education and excelled.
In 2009, the drought or rather famine that was experienced in the whole country took away all our cattle. In this I mean 150 herd rearing only 20 that was the time it dawned on my dad that education was the only option to invest in. it served as awakening call to him.
I was admitted to Lenana School which is one of the old national schools in the country. The fees were never pocket friendly but due to the help of well-wishers, relatives, I was able to book my place in Lenana School at least for some time. I was enrolled to the scholarship marked a new beginning. It deprived me off stress and torture of mind. The remaining arrears, I was able to clear through bursaries. In other words, NCCK pared my way clear to pursue my dreams.
Prior to the scholarship, my dreams were lingering on a broken ladder. I was never sure of sitting for end of term exams. It was never palatable. It was never a cup of tea. However, my worries were short lived. I was able to learn about NCCK scholarship through Bishop Lesuuda of ACK Maralal church who happens to know my background. His coming into my life was timely and surely divined. It is today because of him that I was able to dream again and remained focus.
The NCCK scholarship brought a lot of change into my life. It filled me with a lot of hope and enthusiasm to pursue my dreams. I was able to put more effort in my school work since I would not spend some other time thinking about my arrears. This led to improvement in my academic performance.
I am a dreamer, a go getter and a self-driven student. My focus is on Agribusiness and economics and currently, am taking my degree in agribusiness and economics in JKUAT University under government sponsored. I am working forward to serve the society and the country at large in improving agriculture through setting of policies. Agriculture still remains the backbone of our nation.
As a student, am faced by challenges that need my full attention to deal with. The major challenge is insufficient funds to clear fee and manage day to day activities in school. Another main challenge is the influence of peer and friends. The influence majority depend on the kind of friends one chooses. As a person, am made of my own set of principles that define me and makes me different. This is the source of knowing the right and wrong.
