Anna Qabale Duba a Kenyan nurse who won a Ksh.30 million ($250,000) global award in May 2022 has said she will use the money to expand a school she built at her village in Tuba, Marsabit County.
Anna received the Aster Guardians Global Nursing Award for her efforts in endorsing education and campaigning against outdated cultural practices like Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in her community.
Moreover, Anna who is a nurse at the Marsabit County Referral Hospital, has a school in Tuba which she set up through her Qabale Duba Foundation to give back to her community.
The 31-year-old stated that she will grow the education center which currently has 160 pupils with the Aster Guardian award money
“I have a school in Turbi Marsabit County that serves the children in the morning and parents in the afternoon. I am now expanding with the Aster Guardian funds,” She said.
Moreover, upon completion, Anna hopes the school will accommodate more than 300 pupils. She also plans to build an adult literacy center, a health center for the village and a hostel for pupils.
Nevertheless, Duba in previous occasions narrated how she struggled to set up the school.
“You have all the ideas and the heart to help, but it’s futile if there is no money. When I started this school, I began from scratch. There was one classroom made of tin sheets and I could only accommodate six children,” Duba told UAE newspaper The National.
However, the situation improved after she won the Global Citizen Award in 2019.
“The Aster award changed my life. I got 40,000 square metres of land from the community, and the construction has begun for a proper school with grades one to eight,” she told the publication.
Anna Duba holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing awarded in 2014. In 2016, she became a fellow of the US-funded Mandela Washington Fellowship program.
Furthermore, Anna has a master’s degree in epidemiology and currently works as the coordinator for gender issues for Marsabit County.
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