Sponsoring Change: Morgan Ongaga’s Story
We’ve all heard the saying “it takes a village to raise a child”, and that’s exactly what it took for Morgan Ongaga to go from working for his next meal, to PhD student in chemistry.
Morgan was born in Nyanza Province in Kenya, where he was raised with nine other siblings. His family depended entirely on his father’s agriculture, growing and selling coffee, to earn a living. Then, when Morgan was in 5th grade, his father tragically passed away from liver cirrhosis, leaving the family in abject poverty. With ten children to feed, the family struggled to get by, they could no longer afford meals, let alone school fees. In order to survive, Morgan and his siblings cultivated neighboring farms and worked odd jobs. Morgan recalls, “I remember we used to work for food, so somebody can give you a large piece of land to cultivate or to dig, and then they tell you, ‘When you’re done we are going to give you, maybe five tins of corn.’ You know we eat corn a lot back home, that’s our staple food.”
With the financial strain of his upbringing, often the only thing that kept Morgan going back to school was his intelligence and knack for learning. After taking his standardized primary exam, Morgan placed top in his region and received an invitation to attend Kisii High School, an expensive, but superior school. Unable to afford the prestigious school, Morgan attended a village high school, but with three of his siblings also attending, the fees began to pile up. On weekends, Morgan would perform odd jobs, like digging trenches around the swampy school area, just so he would be able to attend classes the following week. Several times Morgan was forced to drop out of school, but with the help of others he always found his way back to the classroom. Once a woman offered him sacks of corn to use in exchange for school fees and another time a local pastor convinced the school to let Morgan finish his last year and take the final exam. Morgan scored 64 points on his final exam, only two points shy of the required 66 points in order to get into college. After years of struggling to get through school Morgan would not be able to attend university like he had aspired.
With dreams of furthering his education crushed, Morgan moved to the city and began working various jobs to earn a living. Before long, he received a call from a teacher who had heard his story and convinced Morgan to go back to school under his sponsorship. When Morgan arrived at the teacher’s home, he discovered five other boys like himself, bright and underprivileged students. The teacher explained that his family was not aware of what he was doing, because they would not allow him to house six boys on his bill. The teacher provided the boys everything they needed, so all they had to focus on was their studies. Eventually, the teacher’s family discovered that he had been sponsoring the boys, forcing Morgan to find another sponsor.
Luckily, after hearing Morgan’s journey, two Cambridge University students (Isabel and Daryl) who had visited the school, offered to sponsor him to complete school, and this time, Morgan qualified for college. They also equipped the school library. He took out a loan and attended Egerton University, Njoro in Nakuru, where after which he got a job teaching high school from 2013-2018.
In 2018, Morgan decided to pursue his masters and applied to Rutgers University. After a rigorous interview process, he was denied admission. A friend of Morgan’s suggested he apply to Youngstown University even though their application deadline had passed. The university denied his application since it was past due, but Morgan persisted. He messaged faculty every other night, pleading them to give him an opportunity. Then in May, Morgan received a letter of congratulations, he was being considered. Youngstown requested a bank statement of $24,000, in which Morgan did not have. After some time, the school reduced the amount to $5,000, but it was still out of Morgan’s range. A friend of Morgan’s found a man who was willing to help. He agreed, telling Morgan, “I’m giving you my bank statement, I don’t know you, but I believe you are a good cause, so just go and study.” That financial statement enabled Morgan to move to the United States and attend Youngstown University in 2018. He graduated with his masters in chemistry and just completed the first semester of his PhD at Michigan State University. After graduation he hopes to continue work in cancer research in honor of his brother who passed away from cancer in the beginning of 2020.
Morgan’s inspiring story demonstrates not only what hard work, determination, and perseverance can achieve, but it’s also a testimony to the incredible ways sponsoring a child can change their life. Throughout Morgan’s journey so many people helped him get to where he is today. The impact that financial and moral support can have on a child raised in poverty is transformative and affects the entire community. If you’d like to impact a child’s life, like so many inspiring individuals did for Morgan, check out how you can sponsor one of our students from Awasi here.
