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This is Esma's story.

In the 1990s there was no electricity, no running water, and no natural gas to light up our stoves. People had cut off their centralized heating and sold it off as a metal. When electricity would come for an hour a day, streets would get empty, as people, screaming from joy, would rush homes to watch TV iron their clothes, use the washing machine. We were burning fire-wood in an apartment block to worm up, or lay down in a bad, when we did not have it. As a child, I was carrying home a water in small buckets.

I was born by the light of a candle. Doctors immediately told my parents, that my eyes needed treatment. Only the privileged could then go to Europe or the U.S. Treatment in Russia became the only option. However, Georgians were considered second-class people in Russia. We had to hide that we were from Georgia. I was a native Russian speaker, so it was possible, but the need to know when to talk about the home that you were missing, and when not to, is not a reality children should be facing anywhere.

The sentence in UN Convention on the rights of the child that children have the right to freely express their identity is not just hollow words. It was, perhaps then that I got interested in international affairs and politics.

As I needed to study in a specialized school for the blind, we moved to the capital Tbilisi near 20 years ago. In 2003, the Rose Revolution happened. With the new government, the lights went on; My school installed centralized heating; we received computers; Textbooks were being printed in Braille and recorded on audio so that my mother would not have to read everything to me. Life was getting on track, when in August 2008 the Russians attacked Georgia.

The war broke out. My father could hear the military planes flying over the 3rd floor of the house he was building. The country, we were rebuilding for 17 years, may have been destroyed. It was then that I dreamed of representing Georgia in an international court. I carried this dream into the university when selecting to study the law. However, I quickly realized that my peers were not taking me seriously due to my blindness. My voice was not being heard at different events and discussions. I was infantilized, even though I always felt older than others due to my interests and approach to studies.

People also did not seem to know how to behave around a blind person (for instance, they would not warn me, when leaving, so I would keep talking into an empty space, would not tell me, who they were upon meeting hoping I would recognize them by face or voice). Finally, the text-book formats and so on were not accessible for a student with disabilities, which made me have to self-study. www.letstalkleadership.org

One month of my studies wore me out. I really felt there was no point in studying. I felt like I have studied too much at school and in the U.S, where I have spent the previous year on Department of State’s funded Future Leaders Exchange/ FLEX program. (I had the same feeling in the U.S, when I was so overwhelmed, I thought of abandoning the program, but was given good advice by my host- mother to wait for few weeks, as Ime would help me get used to the things). Many people have this wish to back down at some point in life. What helped me get through was that I valued the time I have invested in preparing and passing the entrance exams.

At the same time, I was happily invited to every single disability-related event and asked to share my experience as a student. My university studies and participation in international exchange programs was perceived as an act of heroism. This finally brought me into disability activism, where I was not initially going to go. In general, the walks of life were choosing me, not the other way around. I was rarely creating my own opportunities.

I started conducting public awareness sessions on how to act around a blind person, on the issues of women with disabilities. I advocated for the white cane state funded program to be changed so that the blind persons could choose the size of the cane they needed. I was involved in the legislation change, which allowed blind persons to be signing the documents without entrusting them to a 3rd party. I got involved in training the medical staff and police officers on how to work with persons with disabilities. I also co-authored a few pieces of research on the participation of persons with disabilities in decision-making, employment and proprietary rights, the right to a private and family life of women with disabilities.

I did not fully abandon my interest to the mainstream topics either. I have been recording podcasts, writing blogs on peacebuilding, youth involvement, the women's rights and traveling around Georgian regions informing the youth on the opportunities offered by the European Union. Activism, especially when you are not too involved with one organization, is good, because you get exposed to people of all walks of life, from different cultures and social classes. One day you are delivering a speech in a fancy hotel, speaking with the deputy ministers, members of Parliament and other high level officials and next day you are with the school children, in a high mountainous region, where a school does not have a running water.

My family, on the one hand, were never against me being active and criticizing the powerful. However, my mother always told me that, a young girl, especially a blind one, should not be interrupting others, should speak politely, and not too loudly. My grandmother did not want to take me to a protest demonstration once, before asking a permission from my parents.

You might think the dreams do not come true. Well, in my experience, dreams do come true often. We just need to recognize when it happens. In 2019 my dream of addressing an international conference on Georgian affairs came true, when I, as Georgia's youth Representative to the UN addressed the UN General Assembly speaking about youth empowerment, disability inclusion, intersectionality, and the needs of those living in conflict affected areas.

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My name is Generous and I am the fifth born of 8 siblings. I was born on 4th January 1990, in Bushenyi district, western Uganda. I grew up in an extended family staying with uncles, nephews, nieces and other relatives. My mum was the fourth wife of my late dad, who had a total of 22 children. Life was not easy with fragile livelihood conditions and poverty.

I started school at the age of 7 but then, my mum could not afford school fees for even a primary one child and she sent me to stay with my sister who had offered to cater for my scholastic needs. Life became complicated, as it does for many girls, when her husband attempted to defile me several times. One day, my sister’s husband assaulted her severely and she decided to go back home, and I of course went with her. After some time, I kept asking when I will go to school like others, so my mum gave me out to my cousin’s sister, who had offered to pay my school fees. I stayed with her for a year without going to school. There, I had to get up early to go to the well for water with heavy jerry cans, taking goats for grazing, and worse of all was having only grain sacks to sleep on without a blanket. I was very cold in the rainy season and it was like child labour as I worked as a maid and a shamba boy at the same time.

In the second year, I was allowed to start school and the head teacher instructed me to start from Nursery class, which I did at the age of 9. Surprisingly, I proved them wrong, I moved from preprimary to primary one within one term and I performed excellently well. I was the 10th out of 100 pupils. That was my first time in life to be given a report card of my performance. A year later, Universal primary education (UPE), the government program for free education, started. This program saved my life because I was able to escape the ill treatment by my relatives and go back home to stay with my mum. I was delighted to continue with school and by then, I was around 12 years!

In my culture, there was nothing like child education for girls. Girls were thought to be for marriage and they would send only boys to school because parents in my village had a brief that when boys become successful, they build homes and help with community development as well, while girls tend to move away to develop the in-law’s families. So, they would invest less in girls; saying that any time, they will leave home for marriage. Even, child naming would be done when a girl is seated facing outside the main house and a boy facing inside the house meaning that they are home children.

With so many struggles, the school management started following up on me because they also received the news at some point that some men were planning to marry me off. For example, after the Primary seven Leaving Examinations, we had prepared a farewell party as leavers where the school management invited one of the nurses from a nearby Health Centre II to purposely come and talk to girls about the benefits of education and challenges of early marriages. Nurse Joan, came and talked to us. Her discussion with all the girls in a separate, quiet room became my stepping stone. “Girls are like an open well. Whoever wants can fetch water with any kind of a container. Those with the smallest Vaseline containers, can fetch in water with ease and even those with buckets, big tanks, whether clean or dirty,” meaning young girls can be sexually harassed by any kind of a man in this world. From that moment, my mind got opened about the sexual practices especially on young girls and this was after relating to the previous experience with my in-law.

For example, after our meeting with Nurse Joan, one of my class teachers wanted to dance with me. With a fresh mind, I rejected him and packed my things to go home. Yet, while getting out of the party hall, I met my nephew who was 5 years older than me with a small letter having 300 shs wrapped inside it. I stood somewhere and I had to read the letter which was requesting to meet him somewhere near our plantation at 8:00pm that evening for sex. I proceeded home with fear, worried for my future. and I immediately went to bed. In the night, I woke up and I started thinking about the discussions of Joan and I said to myself never to have sex with anyone because men are always with ill intentions.

When the holiday was over, I received my examination results and I passed with a first grade. I was delighted when one of the nearby secondary schools admitted me on a scholarship for O Level education. However, when my friends were busy congratulating me on my good performance, one man approached me for marriage. I laughed several times and told him,’ I am not going for marriage because soon I will be joining secondary education and it has been my dream!’

No sooner had the term begun than I started to study but I was a day student and it would take me 10kms to walk every morning from 6.00 am barefooted to reach school and I would be required to enter the school gate before 8.00 am every morning for 2 years. Surprisingly, at the end of term one, I was the 4th out of 168 students. Management followed up on my performance and at the end of 2rd year, I was allowed to join the boarding section for the final 2 years. So I went through difficult situations of not even getting shoes or a school sweater and other necessities like scholastic needs . During the weekends and public holidays, I would cultivate sorghum and millet for sale so that I could at least get enough money for school needs. However, I persevered till I completed the A-level. But even then, which was in the year 2010, some people from my village told my mum that she was wasting her money on me, saying she would never get anything back.

In 2011, I managed to be admitted to Makerere University, Kampala to do a Bachelor's in Community Psychology on a scholarship given by the Female Scholarship Foundation (FSI), one of the foundations supporting bright girls from poor backgrounds. However, towards the end of the first term, I received a letter from the Senate informing me my scholarship was cancelled. I went to the Senate office and a lady who was working as a boss told me “go away from here”. With tears rolling out of my head, my friend Daphine who had accompanied me held my hand and we left .I went and talked to my step brother who was one of the administrators at another of the colleges. He tried talking to some of the officials in senate and he found out that the boss had ‘eaten money’, or taken a bribe, to take another student who had told me she had failed.

Later, when my brother returned from work, he told me that he was going to talk to my mum in the village to sell some part of the land. So, the land was sold to cater for my tuition at University for 3 years. I struggled with money for buying handouts and even dressing was an issue. I had to wear only 3 sets of skirt and blouses for the entire stay at the campus. My Course mates at some point because I was not dressing well, and looked uncared for, thought I was a maid on the staff quotas.

At University, I looked pale and ugly but I was determined to succeed. My friend Daphine played a vital role in my life, and tried to support me with most of the requirements. Because I was keen to succeed, I would always be the first to take part in group discussions and to give presentations. Some students from rich families, would spend most off the time in the bars and at the beach but me I would be organizing presentations and also doing research on the course works. I used to be in the library most of the time.

At the end of the course, every student was required to submit a booklet containing their dissertation. Most students did not know how to write all the chapters. However, because I was concentrating on my studies, I was the first to have a booklet approved by my lecturer and my name was the first to appear on the graduation list. As a result, my friends admired me and requested me to work on their booklets as well. I took my time to support them and they would pay me money for that .In this way I was able to get money for paying the University, buying a graduation gown and also getting my mum to Kampala city for my graduation. On top of that, I was able to support my mum in clearing all her debts and also bought a cow for her as a replacement of what she had sold. I had to buy myself a new dress and shoes for my graduation. Through working so hard, I was able to graduate with a second upper class degree.

After my graduation, I kept going to the university library paying some little money monthly to use the computers while looking for the job offers. After 2 months, I managed to secure one with an Organization called Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in 2015. I worked there for 3 years and left for AVSI Foundation, where I am currently working as a Program Officer based in Kamwenge district. I have spent 4 years doing this so far, and am now a supervisor of 18 field teams implementing a 7 year USAID fund project which is closing in February 2024.

In 2018, I finally moved in with Godwin, my hubby with 2 children, Martha and Arthur. With my salary, I have managed to support my mum with some money monthly, and I have bought 2 separate pieces of land. My husband managed to pay the dowry and we have even worked together to construct a residential house in our village. So, life is ok. I will forever be grateful to my almighty God for walking with me up to today.

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I am a young African leader, Executive Director and Founder of Community Support Center / CSC-Asbl nonprofit organization. I was born and grew up in a small village of Mwenga Territory in South Kivu Province. I experienced a difficult childhood and survived war, ethnic conflict, hunger and severe illness in the Eastern DRC. After having worked hard, I graduated as a civil engineer from The Light of Bujumbura University in Burundi in 2021.

I am certified and experienced in Child Safeguarding Policymaking, Accountability, peacebuilding, working with psychological trauma, and Unlocking the Power of Inclusion. I have recently been coached by Jane Millar, one of the volunteer coaches at LetsTalkLeadership.

At the age of 3 and for approximately 9 years, I suffered from ringworm: that meant no visible hair on my head which was surrounded with lesions, driving everyone away from me except my immediate family, (parents, brothers and sisters). This meant that I lived without joy and hope for a better future because I was discriminated against and isolated in the community even at school. The person who took care of me and managed to help me heal, both physically and mentally, was my grandmother.

At the age of 21, remembering my childhood experiences, war, ethnic conflicts, violence, discrimination and social injustice, I decided to dedicate myself to the young and fragile in society, to make sure that no child would have to live through discrimination. That is when I founded CSC-Asbl (non-profit organization) with two aims: to bring joy and hope for a better future to survivors of conflict, and as importantly, for them to become productive members of society, with the vision to promote human rights of women and children through fellowship and empowerment.

The Community Support Center / CSC-Asbl works in such areas: Healing Trauma and Promoting Peace through Sports, Supporting Youth through Education, Child Safeguarding Policy, Mitigating Global Warming through Environmental Management, Skills Education for Women, Trauma Therapy, Sexual and Reproductive Health.

My organization works in the above areas in order to improve life for women and children in eastern DR Congo who have been affected by conflicts and who live under conditions that are insecure, in their villages, at schools, and in displaced persons camps and people living without support from the government.

From 2016 to 2023 CSC implemented different projects and supported more than 2300 people, especially women and children.

This year CSC-asbl reached 700 beneficiaries. 250 women benefited from PAFA project which aims to equip women farmers with basic techniques in agriculture, to fight against climate change and food insecurity in South Kivu; that is the first step toward empowerment. 450 children living in displaced camp benefited from our P4PM (Play 4 Peace and Mental health support) activities; that is the first step toward conflict resolution and wellbeing.

To this day, CSC-asbl is seeking funds and sponsors in order to further its work in the community.

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