Feature 1: There's no such thing as chance as people will say: the beginning with #UNFPA

 Feature 1: There's no such thing like  chance as people will say: the beginning with #UNFPA 

In 2020/2021, the year I finish my engineering degree at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Statistique et d'Economie Appliquée ENSEA, three key events will pave the way for my debut at UNFPA. Seen separately, they could have been seen as uncorrelated. In the end, chance does not exist and God's ways are unfathomable. 

Fact 1: Choosing the Health option that offered the UNFPA scholarship

As a graduating student who wanted to study abroad, I needed money to put together my application forms. Knowing that there was an additional grant of FCFA 50,000 (+/-80€), most of us opted for this option to the detriment of the other two. To balance things out, the Director of Studies decided to draw lots. I was the last to be chosen. Coincidence, do you think? 

Fact 2: Meeting with Expert Richard Dackam Ngatchou 

As a graduating student who wanted to study abroad, I needed money to put together my application forms. Knowing that there was an additional grant of FCFA 50,000 (+/-80€), most of us opted for this option to the detriment of the other two. To balance things out, the Director of Studies decided to proceed with a random selection. I was the last to be chosen. Coincidence, do you think?

Fact 2: Meeting with Expert Richard Dackam Ngatchou

During the elective courses, we were lucky enough to have this expert as a teacher for the management information system course. At the time, he was a Technical Adviser in the UNFPA Country Support Technical Team based in Dakar. His significant impact on me then determined my career path. As a little anecdote, during a lunch he gave us in the ENSEA cafeteria, we were talking about our prospects after graduation. I told him that I would be an expert like him. He even encouraged us to put the titke of "expert" on our business cards.

Fact 3: The final internship

For the end-of-study internship, one of my teachers and now my friend Kapet Guillaume KOUADIO was the one who offered me this opportunity, as I had the best grades and could choose a partner, my friend and brother Paulin TRA. The internship took place in the Coordination Department of the National Reproductive Health Programme in the Ministry of Health, working on a study in 4 health districts (Bouaflé, Sinfra, Bondoukou and Tanda) on reproductive health and family planning. Guess what? UNFPA is the organisation that funded this study, with technical support from the Population Council.

Three lessons to remember

1.      We must learn to read certain events with divine keys. God himself has the missing pieces of the jigsaw to complete his masterpiece.

2.      The encounters that inspire you, make you dream and motivate you when you're young must not just remain at the dream stage. In the words of Denzel Washington: "Dreams without goals are just dreams, and in the end they breed disappointment".

3.      "I believe that luck is where preparation meets opportunity". -Oprah Winfrey. In a nutshell, the internship opportunity came about because I had done so well in my electives. 

See you next week. 

#judicaelelidje #PutGodFirst #smartwork #hardwork #excellence #leadership