The Full Story
Purity Chepyegon Jebogogo is a young lady from Baringo, in her third and last year of college pursuing a nursing course. This might sound huge and exciting, but it has been achieved through a lot of struggles, sacrifices and pain, through courage, determination, resilience and will from Purity.
Purity comes from a village known as Molo-Sirwe, where life is hard faced by poverty and drought. In her community, education is not a priority to many, especially for a girl-child. The community also practices some traditions that are harmful. When girls hit puberty, they are forced to undergo Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) which is usually followed by being married off at such a young age whereby some girls are not lucky to escape.
As Purity grew, she knew that this was the fate that awaited her. Some of her older and younger sisters were already married off, marking an end in their educational journey. They were not able to finish High School. But Purity had already decided that that was not her destiny. She was determined to finish High School and pursue higher education.
With the support of her mother, who saw Purity's urge and determination, she was able to attend school all through. Her luck and hope shone brighter, because she was able to be supported by Help Mission Development Services (HMDS). Through the support, she was able to remain in school and when in Form Four HMDS got a sponsor - Birgitte for her through Periamma who enabled her to finish her High School education and performed well scoring a mean grade of C+.
Her mother made a hard but life changing decision, to let Purity go and stay with her aunt who lives in Nakuru county. This is where Purity got the chance to apply for college and she managed to get a slot at a medical college to pursue a course in Nursing and Midwifery.
With the support of her sponsor (Birgitte) through Periamma & HMDS, her aunt and mother, she has been able to study without hiccups and almost done with her course. In the beginning the journey was full of ups and downs, but when Birgitte started supporting her she was rest assured for happy ending. It has been a great joy to walk with Purity in her educational journey.
