Tererai Trent: Zimbabwean Woman Achieves Global Education Dream
Classified in English
Written on in 
English with a size of 2.62 KB
The Remarkable Life of Tererai Trent
Tererai Trent was born in 1965 in rural Zimbabwe, in a hut that had no electricity or running water. Although her culture did not believe in educating girls, Tererai was desperate to learn. She taught herself to read and write using schoolbooks that belonged to her brother, Tinashe, who was delighted to let her do his homework.
Early Struggles and Hidden Learning
Tererai's secret was exposed, however, when the local schoolteacher noticed that Tinashe's homework was much better than any of the work he did in class. The teacher intervened and begged Tererai's father to allow his daughter to attend school. She was able to study for one year. By the time Tererai was 18, she was already the mother of three, and seemed destined to live a life of poverty.
Burying Her Dreams
But Tererai had big dreams. She wanted to go to the US to get a bachelor's degree, a master's degree, and, eventually, a doctorate. She wrote them on a scrap of paper and put it into a small tin box, which she buried under a rock in the field where she looked after cattle.
Pursuing Education Against Odds
Tererai began to work for an aid agency that had come to the area, and she used her income to do correspondence courses to compensate for all the years of study she'd missed. In 1998, this remarkable woman, who had had only one year of formal education, was accepted as a student at Oklahoma State University.
Life in the United States
Her dream had come true, but life in the US was a struggle. Tererai held several jobs while doing her degree, but there were times when the family went hungry. Through all of the hardship, she never fell behind in her studies, earning a bachelor's degree and then a master's. On each visit, she unearthed her tin box and ticked off the next step to her goal.
Fulfilling the Ultimate Goal
In 2009, Tererai earned her PhD and became Dr. Tererai T. Finally, she had fulfilled her dream. Her next goal was to help pave the way for other African children to follow their dreams and realize their potential. She appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, where she was given a wonderful gift: a donation of $1.5 million to build a school in her village.
Tererai has gone on to become a leader in the global fight for education for all children, especially girls. Wherever she goes, she inspires people to fulfill their own dreams with the word that has become her motto: Tonogona, which means It is achievable.