With eyes downcast, 22-year-old Esseye quietly tells us she was forced to drop out of 9th grade 8 years ago. That was when most girls living in Robit village stopped going to high school because two of her girlfriends were raped while walking to the neighboring village 11 miles away to attend the closest high school. After that parents, like Esseye’s parents, thought it too dangerous for their daughters to trek back and forth that far. Limited with a truncated education, Esseye watched her male classmates go on to become teachers, while she spent her energy selling cooking oil made from the local yellow flowers in the marketplace.

But Esseye’s life is about to change. With the construction of Robit’s first ever high school by Glimmer, Esseye and many other girls headed back to the classroom this fall! And with shining eyes, Esseye confesses she wants to be a nurse.

‘I want others to be healthy, so many have TB, water-borne disease and malaria like my mother had, ‘ explains Esseye who adds that her favorite class is Biology.

We ask Esseye if she now has new fears about returning to school after such a long absence, and she looks straight up and with an intense stare, folds her arms and proclaims:

‘I am confident. I was 4th in my class when I dropped out and now I plan to be 1st.”

And we have to admit – we totally believe her.