St Edmund’s College is proud to celebrate the achievement of Fadila Issah, who has just completed her MPhil in Education, Globalisation and International Development. This milestone caps a remarkable journey from a farming community in Ghana to one of the world’s leading universities.
Fadila is the first of her north Ghanaian community to attend Cambridge, something she attributes to the limited industry in the area “Growing up in a farming community, things have not been easy when it comes to financial issues, because this is a community where we farm for consumption, not for economic value,” she explained.
Her education began through Ghana’s universal basic education programme. Even without the means to buy books, Fadila and her parents were determined to make the most of every opportunity afforded to them. “My Dad tried his best to always make sure I got to school early, although I was going to school without books because we didn’t have the money to get me the books,” she said. “I was hoping my results would be the thing that spoke for me.”
The transition from junior high to senior high school brought new challenges, as basic education funding ended at that stage. To continue her studies, Fadila took on several jobs in order to save for her school fees. Then, a family accident left her father with a broken leg and paralysed, placing the family under severe strain. “Things became so difficult,” she recalled. “At this moment, there wasn’t anything for us to do. I just had to give up on school.”
It was at this critical juncture that a scholarship from the Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED) changed the course of her life, covering her tuition, accommodation, educational materials and daily living costs. “It was very tough at this point, and I will always appreciate them, because they have changed my life for the better,” Fadila said.
That support, alongside a second scholarship from the Mastercard Foundation, carried her from the classroom in her home community all the way to Cambridge, where she has just completed her MPhil in Education, Globalisation and International Development, a subject area closely tied to her own lived experience of the barriers facing access to education. In fact, Fadila dreams of “helping girls in similar situations realise their dreams”.
Fadila’s story is a powerful reminder of the transformative impact that scholarships and educational support can have, not only for individuals but for the communities and families around them.
