LUNGI BIRTHS A STAR IN THE UBA’S NATIONAL ESSAY COMPETITION SIERRA LEONE

The National Essay Competition, targeted at senior secondary students in Sierra Leone is organized annually, as part of UBA Foundation’s education initiative which is aimed at promoting the reading culture and encouraging healthy and intellectual competition amongst secondary school students in Nigeria and across Africa. 

We are very excited to announce the  UBA Foundation National Essay Competition -2021 winners:

• Rebecca Kaibanya of St. Augustine Secondary School Lungi- 1st place winner and recipient of a Le 50,000,000 scholarship.

• Musa Ayowova Musa of The Sierra Leone Grammar School- 2nd place winner and recipient of a Le 30,000,000 scholarship.

• Sakinah Sarah Marah of Beacon High Secondary School, 3rd place and is the recipient of a Le 20,000,000 scholarship.

At Ariana Diaries, we were elated when we discovered that the Grand Prize winner was not only a girl but she schools outside of the main cities, in Lungi! Now more than ever we believe that access to quality education for all is achievable. Rebecca stands out, as a testament to others and an inspiration that no matter where you are, your dreams are valid. We had a quick chat with her through the support of her mother.

On Monday 20th December 2021, a star was born – Rebecca Patricia Lucy Kaibanya, a 14 year old girl from Saint Augustine Senior secondary School, Lungi made herself, family and community proud by bagging the grand prize from the National Essay Competition. She believes that her dad, grandmother and mama are her greatest inspiration. Rebecca says the message about this competition, reached her school late, so she had to hurry up to meet the deadline and  the various requirements. She felt she has to stay true to her commitment to self, where she had set goals at the beginning of her SSS 2 school year. 

She had to tell  herself that she should GO FOR IT. Challenge herself with by entering academic competitions . She believes this will help her overcome her natural introverted state and push her to interact better while utilising her knowledge. 

Initially she thought that it was a cash prize and guess what? She was going to donate the money  to her grandma,to build her church! But on entering and winning the competition,she learnt that the money  will be saved for her University education! That’s such a relief, prayers answered all the same – one less thing for the family to worry about.

The opportunity was timely, pushing herself to do something outside of the box and to have a happy ending was a joy that she finds hard to explain. She believes the different stages of the competition has helped her to be more  confident, be more expectant of the possibilities out there, and just do more, better things!

Rebecca is undecided as to what she wants to be when she grows up, she is in between doing law or entrepreneurship.

She believes that Sierra Leone will be better if more young people embrace Writing. Rebecca says writing is very important to her as it helps you put words and thoughts into paper.  She thinks writing continuously  with good communication skills will help next generation to  be more powerful , productive than this present generation.

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