City varsity student earns bursary after tagging big shots in Twitter appeal
A random tweet by a university student has earned her bursary from the Nairobi Woman Representative Esther Passaris’ office.
Neema Bosibori, a third year Bachelor of Commerce student at Management University of Africa, had reached a dead end in the search for tuition fees just days to the new semester.
She had missed last semester’s exams due to a pending Sh6, 000 balance and was trying hard not to miss out on the next semester.
Neema decided to tweet about her struggles to finish university.
In her first tweet, she tagged Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore because “I had seen Safaricom giving a lot of goodies during the festive season,” she later told Nairobi News.
NO RESPONSE
She got no response from Mr Collymore.
She fired a second tweet and tagged K24’s news anchor Betty Kyallo. Still she got no response.
“In my next post I appealed to my followers to share widely and it was then that a person I do not know personally tagged Esther Passaris and she responded,” Neema told Nairobi News.
Passaris in her response asked Bosibori to follow back for private messaging. In a subsequent message, the Woman Rep asked for the student’s phone number so that her office could get in touch.
“Her personal assistant called me moments later and asked if I could go to the office and since I’m in Kisii we agreed I go to the office first thing tomorrow (Friday) so I’m travelling tonight,” said an excited Bosibori.
I am a student studying @ManagementUNI and I pay fee by myself .I hustle through holiday to pay my fee but unfortunately this semester beginning January 7th unfortunately having lost my grandmother didn’t get enough money for my fee Please retweet my sponsor could be in your TL
— bosi_bori (@dee27582955) January 2, 2019
My office shall be in touch and we see how best to assist you. #NeverLoseHope#HappyNewYear #RIPGranny https://t.co/zrvpwlnwWO
— Hon. Esther M Passaris (@EstherPassaris) January 3, 2019
Neema had saved money from her earnings from casual jobs she did during the festive season, but spent it all on her siblings who have resumed school for the first term.
“It’s not like we don’t have parents but they have been unable to support us financially since 2016 when their business was closed down after land ownership issues.
“After finishing Form Four I worked as a sales person and raised my fee for first year, but my second year, it was hard for me to afford school fees especially since I lost my grandmother towards the end of the year,” she explained.
Neema is hopeful that the bursary from Passaris’ office help her complete her studies next year and secure a job so that she can support her siblings.