Agnes is the second born child in a family of six. Despite facing many challenges, she managed to emerge second top student in her school. Her poor background did not deter her from achieving her goal. She is very determined to succeed in life and become the first surgeon in her village. Her father is a woodcarver while her mother is a house wife. Due to lack of market for wood carvings her father has not been able to provide for the big family. This coupled with frequent droughts has seen the family lack basic needs like food. Agnes is very focused and believes that no man is limited in this world.

Susana lives with her mother and two brothers. Her younger sister lives with her father, who left the family home when Susana was small. She is a very lively girl, who has done well at school so far. Susana is very keen on music and dancing, and loves to help other children who are not as advanced as her.

Syongwa is the first-born child in a family of four. She lives with her grandmother together with her siblings. Syongwa has been working hard in school. She has remained focused in achieving her dreams. Despite the challenges she faced in her primary education she managed to score exemplary marks. Her grandmother has remained to be her encouragement to do the best in school. Due to poverty her mother neglected the children and left them with their grandmother. Syongwa dreams to be a journalist in future in order to advocate for the plight of girls especially orphans in the media. She believes that hard work never goes unrewarded.

My hobbies are reading, going for picnics, and playing with my friends at home and in school. I also like participating in school activities, especially sports as I am very active. When I grow up I would like to become a journalist and go to many places to learn different things.

Ágata was born in the city of Beira, Sofala province, on June 21, 2006, where she lived with her parents. She is an intelligent and humble girl and likes to play with her friends “jumping rope”, and in her free time she reviews school subjects and helps her mother with the house duties. She has 4 siblings, 2 of whom are girls and 2 are boys. 3 are in primary school and 1 is not yet of school age. Her mother cannot work heavily due to health problems she has since 2016. Agate’s father died when she was 1 year old. 4 years later the family of the deceased father asked her to leave the house. The mother receives a support of 2,500.00Mt (about 38USD) per month from the rent of that same house and moved out to rent another place where she pays monthly 1,200.00Mt (about 18.50USD). The remaining amount is not enough to buy a bag of rice to feed the family for one month. The house consists of 1 bedroom, 1 living room and has an outside bathroom. The house has no piped drinking water. During 2020, due to COVID 19, the students had to study at home, going weekly to the school to buy brochures and copies of tests. Most of the kids could not afford it.Her preferred subject at school is the Biology. Agate would like to proceed her studies to become a Nurse.

When I grow up I would like to be a veterinarian so that I can treat animals and stop poaching. My hobbies are sports, cooking, going for shopping with my friends, and working with creativity and fashion. My favorite subjects are maths and science because to be a vet you should study hard in these subjects

Vaishnavi is in class 9th and loves dancing in her free time. She is responsible and attentive in class. Her favorite games are badminton and cricket. She wants to be a police officer in the future to bring justice.

I live in the Kibera slum in a village known as Gatwekera. I have four siblings and live with both parents. My favorite subjects are social studies and math because they engage me and help in critical thinking. My interest is swimming and reading fairy tale stories that wow me. I am hoping to be metrologies so that I can prepare people for bad or good weather and inspire young girls to take up such careers since most of them aren’t willing to do so in my community.