IN JAMAICA (ONE OF THE MOST INSPIRATIONAL STORY EVER): A Campion High School girl's bumpy ride to Howard University....Tahirah Williams ploughs through poverty, personal challenges to land scholarship....From first form into second form I asked myself several questions, like, 'Why aren't you smart enough'? and 'Why are you so black'?

By KIMONE FRANCIS Sunday Observer staff reporter francisk@jamaicaobserver.com  Sunday, June 08, 2014   

WHEN it was announced that Campion Colllege student Tahirah Williams had been accepted by Howard University in Washington, DC, USA on scholarship, not many knew the trials and despair that had dominated her life up to that point.

EMOTION — Tahirah cannot hold back the tears while
 relating the pain and agony that her sister went through.
 (PHOTOS: JOSEPH WELLINGTON)

For some it wasn't surprising — the norm for a Campionite — but the heights that the 19-year-old attained and kept were not by sudden flight, but by sleepless nights burning the midnight oil.

Born and raised in the hills of Gordon Town, St Andrew, life was not the best for Williams, more like "fun and simple"... and challenging.

Her struggles started at McLeod Basic School, and continued through St Martin De Porres and Grove Primary, where she was placed on the Government's Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) subsistence programme.

She knew little about Campion College, and yearned to attend Glenmuir High because she had family members living in Clarendon. However, upon hearing others say that Campion provided possibly the best form of academic training, she changed her mind. And so when she sat the Grade Six Achievement Test, she simply wrote down Campion at the top of her list, which included St Andrew High, Wolmer's Girls, and Immaculate Conception.

Months later, having found out that she was awarded a place at Campion, new worries came. How could she afford to take up that offer with her father, the sole breadwinner of the family, having been laid off from his inspector duties with the Jamaica Urban Transit Company?

She was urged to seek a transfer to a less financially demanding school, and was even offered a scholarship to attend The Queen's School, but she was adamant that she would attend Campion.

She had the support of her mother, whom she said would always remind her of how great God is and how faith could open doors. "My mother believes in God, she has so much faith, she would always tell me, 'God will not let you start something and leave you alone', and so I kept that belief," she told the Jamaica Observer.

In August of that same year (2007) Williams' mother received a call from her grade six teacher who informed her that a woman from the United Kingdom wanted to assist a student in need and that she had suggested her. The woman, a good Samaritan, had no prior ties with the school and had merely called wanting to help someone in need.

Williams is still being assisted by this nameless Samaritan whose only demand for continued assistance was that she did her best.

Tahirah stresses the need to give back to people with
similar experiences. (PHOTOS: JOSEPH WELLINGTON)

"It really affected me a lot because I didn't like myself. From first form into second form I asked myself several questions, like, 'Why aren't you smart enough'? and 'Why are you so black'?

The school administration didn't make her feel bad, but a small group of students did ... allowing her to feel inferior and causing her to hate herself for feeling the way that she did because she validated the opinion of her detractors.

Nearing the end of second form, she decided that she wasn't going to allow anyone to bully her anymore. She didn't want to feel the way that she did about herself and that was when high school got better for her. While not having a computer or modern gadgets to distract her, Williams coped by playing sports, using it as an escape route. In third form she recalled life becoming a little easier at Campion, though she added football and basketball to her extra-curricular activities.

When travelling to and from school she had to journey down a hill, cross a river and then travel up another hill. She recalled whenever it rained access to her house was impossible as the river that she had to cross proved impassable. She had to travel a different route which took her around yet another hill. She did that every day.

In fifth form, life became increasingly difficult for Tahirah, as her sister, who had tried her hardest to care for her and her nieces while working a minimum wage salary, became seriously ill. She explained that in the initial stages no one knew the disease which threatened to take her sister away from her, as doctors were unable to make a diagnosis. As the months progressed her sister's condition got worse, her face had swollen beyond recognition. Rehashing such a painful memory, a sobbing Tahirah, with the agony of helplessness painted across her face, told the Sunday Observer the heartrending ordeal of how her sister's health deteriorated while she portrayed a façade of strength for her nieces, hiding her despair.

"It was difficult because I couldn't help her, I didn't want to think that she might die, the way she looked, she had to stay in bed for most of the time. "It was difficult to go home and study and to prepare for exams knowing that my sister was ill," she said....

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