My name is Racheal Atuko and I am an 18-year-old student at Beacon of Hope College.
My family has been very poor and broken since childhood and yet, I am a firm believer in the phrase ‘things happen for a reason’. When my father refused to pay for my schooling, my mother dumped me at BOH with no money and moved away. When I found a mass in my breast, I couldn’t afford the surgery or painkillers that I needed. Doctors feared I had breast cancer. I experienced various levels of pain due to my medical condition and my family’s abandonment. But, I believe this all led me to BOH and there I found a community I could rely on.
I feel like I’m the luckiest to have joined BOH. This school has been a life-changing blessing for me, like a small, happy family where I find my peace and strength. My financial state meant that I couldn’t afford food, school supplies, or even my breast surgery, and I often felt so alone and miserable. But through all this, my friends and teachers at BOH reassured and supported me in every way (my friends even paid for my surgery); they were the family that did not abandon me.
I believe things happen for a reason; I believe all the pain I endured led me to the love I found at BOH; I believe you are reading this now so I can tell you that people like me exist—people whose lives have been saved from misery and brightened by BOH.
Your support is so important to us because, without Beacon of Hope, our lives would have been forever lost in the brokenness of poverty and sickness. But thanks to you, we are studying, we are provided for, we are loved. So, thank you for providing for us and I implore you to please continue your generosity; there are more like me.
May God bless you,
Racheal Atuko
P.S. You are reading this for a reason.