INTERVIEW with Pestalozzi Alumni Alex Habonimana.
Thanks to our supporters who believe in the power of education to change children’s lives, Alex, 23, was spared becoming an addict. Instead he was given an incredible education, enabling him to become head boy of the school, and a job lined up before graduating. Alex is ambitious and currently studying for a computer science degree. In the future he wants to create apps to help change the world.
Alex left Pestalozzi Zambia in 2018. He was offered several university scholarships but had to turn them down due to a lack of full funding. The resilience that was developed during Alex’s nurture at the Zambian Campus allowed him to overcome the disappointment and he did not loose hope. Finally with the help of a relative, he is now able to support himself through his computer science degree.
Alex reflects on what his life could have been if Pestalozzi Zambia hadn’t selected him. In the Meheba refugee settlement, where he lived before moving to our Pestalozzi Campus, aged 10, he sees the life he might have had through his old friends. Many have become addicted to drugs and drinking because there is simply nothing for them to do, with little job prospects and a lack of education.
Alex is fully aware of the significance of being chosen by Pestalozzi International has had upon his life. With a quality education, safe accommodation and loving care from staff at Pestalozzi Zambia, he was able to have a life dramatically different from what it could have been. He also absorbed the Pestalozzi values, of the Head, Heart and Hands, which he still uses to this day to guide him through his life’s challenges.
Alex has ambitions to become an app developer, specifically to design apps that will help the world and his community.
Please find out more by listening to Alex tell his own story in the interview above.
We are very grateful to Alex for sharing his story – so far, with us.
Pestalozzi International is a children’s charity that provides exceptionally bright children from some of the poorest communities in Africa and Asia with a child-centred education, that produces young adults capable of changing the world.
A Pestalozzi International education not only helps our Alumni to create and build new lives for themselves, but it also contributes to long-term stability and growth in their communities. To date, 90% of our Alumni have remained in their country of origin, most supporting their communities and/or economies with careers in the public service, running businesses, and volunteering – with 64% supporting their communities once they become Alumni.
Our supporters believe that Children’s abilities are the same everywhere, but opportunity isn’t.
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