We believe that education can change the course of a young person’s life. Our aim is to empower promising Nigerian students to continue to strive for excellence even in the midst of tremendous adversity.
Each year, over 1.5 million Nigerian students take the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination to compete for about 500,000 college admission spaces around the country. Of the exceptional students who are fortunate enough to be granted admission, many from disadvantaged backgrounds find themselves unable to complete their education because of financial constraints. Due to a national unavailability of government sponsored aid, loans, and scholarships, many students around the country are forced to drop out before graduation when their families are unable to meet the demands of often-overwhelming college tuition costs.
As a Nigerian native, I have experienced first-hand the helplessness faced by countless students in my country when I lost my father, my family’s breadwinner, in 2013. Suddenly, my future quickly went from promising to uncertain as my family was faced with the now insurmountable burden of my siblings’ tuition costs and mine. If not for the goodwill of my uncle who adopted me into the United States, I too, may have been forced to abandon my academic pursuits and work meager jobs to sustain my family for a long time-period. Now finding myself in more fortunate circumstances, I have discovered a passion for assisting students who face similar situations. During my few years in the United States, I have been using some part of my income as a full-time employed college student to support my old friends from back home through school. It is from these experiences that my vision for this organization was born; to provide financial assistance and hope to qualified and ambitious students who have fallen on hard times. I and my colleagues know that this organization alone cannot solve Nigeria’s higher education crisis, nor can we put every disenfranchised student through school. However, we truly believe that the potential of changing even one student’s life for the better is motivation enough to push forward.
So, we come to you, to ask you to open your heart to students in need and to aid us in restoring hope for those who have lost it. In doing so, we humbly entreat you to Hold a Hand, change a life, and Leave Behind Your Prints.
Arinzechukwu C. Nwagbata
Founder| Hold a Hand Project