26/01/2026
Where I come from, mornings don’t begin with “What do you want to achieve in life?” They begin with survival. Who is going to fetch water? Is there enough food for today?
How do we make it through this month without losing dignity?
In many families, life isn’t planned in years, it is managed in days. Sometimes in hours. When parents are carrying that kind of mental load, “follow your passion” sounds like a luxury conversation. As a child, I didn’t have the language for it, but I could feel something:
School was important… but it didn’t always connect to real life at home. You could pass exams and still come back to a house where nothing had changed. No income. No new opportunities. Just more waiting.
Years later, when I became a teacher, I kept thinking about the homes I grew up around. Families doing their best. Young people who were smart, creative, capable, but felt invisible. Like the world wasn’t designed with them in mind.
I realized something that changed the direction of my life:
You can’t talk to families about “innovation” or “the future of work” when they’re worried about food today. But if learning can connect to income, confidence, and real opportunities, everything changes.
That understanding didn’t come from a textbook.
It came from being the girl walking behind cattle, watching adults carry the weight of survival every single day. 75 years old pensioners taking care of their plus 40 years old unemployed children. It hurts!
That’s where my journey started, not with technology, not with big visions, but with one question:
How can empowering youth with digital skills help families survive with more dignity, in this day and age?
