‘How NOUN changes my story’

A 26 year-old Peace and Conflict Resolution student of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Makurdi Study Centre, Benue State,Miss Miracle Kparevzua, has described how her enrolment into the university has turned around her story as she is now well on course of acquiring her university certificate.

Kparevzua,in a chat with the NOUN News correspondent, explained that she was born with a condition called cerebral palsy which made her to neither talk nor walk for the first seven years of her life.

“The condition delayed me and I could not go to school on time,” she said, while revealing the difficulties people born with her condition continue to face in the society.

In spite of the challenges she faced in her early years, Kparevzua made the choice to a journey of self-discovery, resilience, and defying societal expectation.

She narrated how despite her inability to develop in her early stage in life, her father never gave up on her by making sure she got the needed treatment to improve her condition.

According to her, in the quest of pursuing her education, she wrote the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examination, but could only score 169 and, therefore, could not get admission to any university, until her breakthrough came the day someone told her father about NOUN.

"I want to help people with my condition that don’t have the opportunity that I had, that they should not give up on themselves, but that whatever they set their minds on they can accomplish it”`Kparevzua said.

Her inability to hold the pen or mouse very well is one of her present challenges, as her hands shake most of the times, thereby affecting how she writes,as well as her inability to walk upright but can do some certain things on her own.

Regardless, the 100-level student  desires to improve on her speech and hands while she continues with the treatment to enable her improve on both.

Asked about what she enjoy the most about her study with NOUN, the student mentioned the study materials as being “very simple to read and understand” even as she appreciated the university environment as the staff have been very supportive to her plight.