Boy with ‘wrong’ gender but good grades gets $50K Ashesi scholarship

Ashesi University College has awarded a scholarship worth $50,000 to Tubare Kolah to undertake a four-year engineering programme at the university.
The scholarship covers his full tuition and any other amenities needed to successfully undertake the degree programme.
On Monday, Joy News broke the touching story of 20-year old Tubare whose mother was driven out of marriage when he was three months old.
Tubare’s mother, Hawa Kolah, had married in Baabli in the Upper West Region and when her husband died, customs demanded that she marry her late husband’s brother.
As part of that custom, however, it was a bad omen to give birth to a boy as the first child in the second marriage. Unfortunately, however, her first born in that marriage was a boy and she was driven out of that marriage.
Manasseh Azure Awuni who discovered Tubare’s story reports that an overwhelming number of Ghanaians were willing to sponsor Tubare’s education after they heard his story.
Tubare completed the Nandom Senior High School scoring A1 in six out of the eight subjects he wrote despite harsh financial challenges and a lack of education-enhancing opportunities.
He scored A1 each for Biology, Elective Mathematics and Physics and B2 in Chemistry in the West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
When Joy News aired his story, Ghanaians across the world responded overwhelmingly.
At least 10 individuals and institutions have expressed their willingness to bear the full cost of Tubare’s education throughout the university.
Some have expressed interest in donating various sums of money to help him pay the fees, while others expressed interest in giving him accommodation in their private hostels on the university campuses.
In fact, Tubare had a choice and he settled on the offer from Ashesi University.
Director of Admissions and Financial Aid at Ashesi University College, Araba Botchway, says apart from tuition, Tubare will also be given accommodation, feeding, pocket money and a laptop computer for the duration of his course.
The 20-year-old former student of Nandom Senior High School had gained admission to the University of Mines and Technology in Tarkwa and was awaiting admission from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, however, he had no hopes of going to school because he and his old mother, who is in her seventies, could not raise even GHC100 to support his education.