Vincent's Letter

To: World Scholarship Initiative

How are you doing in this period of pandemic? I hope all of you are fine. You should all know that I am very happy writing to you this letter which it has been a while since I wrote one. After finishing my final examinations and the results were announced, I lost hope and I thought I would never hear from you again. But through your support and especially Mr. Tom Bode I am here again writing this letter to express how grateful and happy it is to talk to you.

Before the WSI started supporting me, life was very hard I can tell you for sure. Like after high school my uncle saw that, since he cannot take care of me in terms of anything, he took me back to my parents in the countryside and there I used to do nothing. My parents then broke up and I came back and started staying at my friend’s place with their family. And those few months I was going through stress every night and I would cry day and night. I looked for different kind of jobs but they couldn’t sustain me. One day as I was going through the WSI website, I just decided to talk to Mr. Tom and see if he could help.

After talking to him this is where everything changed and I thank him for listening to me and talked to the WSI on behalf of me. I explained to him that I wanted to pursue in my studies and start with a diploma and he talked to you guys and thanks to your understanding I was able to look for an institution for my diploma studies. The WSI paid for my registration fee which up to now I am seeing it as a miracle. And I was able to enroll at Rift Valley Institute of Science and Technology doing diploma in Information, Communication, and Technology.

Due to the pandemic, we were asked to start an online session for the preparation of the course and at that time I needed a laptop but it was hard for me to get one and also to ask for one, as you all know asking for something like that it’s not easy and it needs courage. After talking to Mr. Tim and he talked to you, I was able to start the online session with the laptop and I couldn’t believe and I’ve never imagined that one day I will own a laptop, but thanks to WSI now I own one. The laptop is really helping a lot in my online studies and also storing notes which are easier writing from it.

After that, there came another problem for I was to move out from my friend’s home. I also tried to have courage and talked to Mr. Tom and you all came and helped me get a house and also items like bed, a table, a good mattress, a cooking stove and also paid for the rent and electricity and water bills. And because my job can only sustain me in terms of food only, you said you will be paying for my rent every month. I am very grateful for that since now I say at my place without any stress just thinking and studying and building my future.

Before starting the course, we asked to come with specific items for the course and the WSI was able to buy for me books, a calculator, ream of papers, and also textbooks for assignments and lastly a flashdisk for storing my documents. Without these materials I don’t think there was any chance for me doing the course and since I couldn’t afford, you really came through and helped me.

My course as I have told you, is called Diploma in Information, Communication and Technology (DICT). It deals with information related to the computer for communication and technology development. It takes three years to complete. It has three modules, i.e., module I, module II, and module III. Each module takes three terms and each term has three months. So one module is equal to nine months. After a module, we sit for a KNEC exam, like in July and August this year we are having our first KNEC exam. Each KNEC exam there is a registration fee of KSH 11900. But when the term ends we sit for an end term exam. That is after every three months there is an exam. Also we will be sitting to CATS any time during the learning period.

We have like one hundred and thirty students doing the course and since I’ve started the course just last month, it is not easy to identify my classmates. I only know the class representative. He is called Sam. He really helps in terms of knowing information. For now we haven’t started projects yet but soon we will be starting projects and practicals and I will be happy to inform you.

DICT course has seven units mainly: structural programming (SP), computer applications (CA), operating systems (OS), Entrepreneurship (EEP), computer mathematics (CMAT), Pascal (P) and ICT. This is for module I. I don’t know about module II. After the course, I can get jobs like: assisting with installation, maintenance, diagnosis, and repair of computer hardware and software, web developer, computer network professional, and ICT systems administrator of which I want to be an ICT support officer.

I hope I’ve explained everything and in case of any question, I will answer through Mr. Tom in his email. I have really enjoyed writing to you about my course and also am happy that I have a chance to be grateful to all that you have done for me. Thank you very much for everything and for the support. You have inspired me a lot and showed me hope in this life. May God bless you and be with you in everything that you do.

Stay safe always the world needs people like you.

Yours faithfully,
Vincent