GAMAID
- July 16, 2025
My name is Glory Ime Essien, and I am a young adult living in Uyo. Before GAMAID Foundation reached out to me, I was tangled up in a web of financial hardship, hunger, unstable housing, and the constant fear of my education slipping through my fingers. During my first year at university, right in the middle of a nationwide strike that kept us off campus, I could not afford hostel fees when the portal closed, and I ended up sleeping in overcrowded common rooms or on the bare church floor, not even sure if I would ever have a proper bed of my own. Meals were scarce, and my coursework began to suffer as my body and mind kept growing weaker by the day.
Everything started to shift in 2022 when I first heard about GAMAID Foundation through my church. They offered me a room in their student housing programme, giving me a secure place to live throughout the strike and even beyond. At the same time, they provided me with regular feeding support, weekly stipends specifically meant for groceries and hot meals, which meant I no longer had to wonder where my next plate of food was going to come from. In the moments when I was still struggling, the Mercy team at GAMAID Foundation stepped in with generous loans, and I would often find myself eating on credit at their community restaurant, only for my balance to be graciously cleared without any questions asked. When I eventually needed proper clothes to carry myself with confidence, they surprised me with beautiful dresses, jeans, shirts and tops, a wardrobe truly worth far more than anything I could have afforded on my own.
Across the three years from 2022 to 2025, all this holistic support, valued at well over ₦100,000, became the very ground my stability was built on. Having a safe place to stay set me free to focus on my studies without the constant fear of eviction breathing down my neck, and steady meals restored my health and energy. The financial help and the loans they so kindly forgave taught me to manage resources responsibly and to truly lean into community rather than face life alone. Beyond my own personal life, this help spread outwards too. My younger siblings got to see me thrive instead of struggle, and our family’s hope was gently rekindled.
GAMAID Foundation has truly been the greatest blessing of my entire university journey. Their kindness has carried me from the depths of uncertainty all the way to the edge of graduation, and I can now hold my head high. I will forever be grateful to the team, the sponsors and the volunteers who believed in me at a time when I had no real reason to believe in myself. May God replenish them a hundredfold, just as they replenished my soul, my wardrobe and my dreams