I want to say a big thank you to @dobartim for the opportunity to participate in this great contest, it is a way of letting the whole world to know the role steemit has played in my life.... You can join the contest via this link as well:
I will like to approach this contest firstly as a contest which it is and also as a way of testifying to the wonderful things steemit has done in my life....
I always love it when i have the opportunity to talk about myself without steemit and myself with steemit,those who knows me can testify to the difference with a great accuracy.
Check the following pictures,they speak volume about me with and without steemit
This was me before steemit.
Now check this out
And this is me with steemit, the difference is clear.
Here is all you need to know about @emmakwisequote with and without steemit,i promise to be detailed enough.
2017 was a year with a mixture of feelings for me,it started the way i wanted and ended beautifully as well. But in-between the year was so many bad memories,obstacles,challenges and difficulties i would not want to remember in years to come.
I am the second born in the family of four,my Dad is a government worker and my mum a trader. My parents struggled to ensure we all had a good education. With little resources coming into family account,i can't point to a day with full satisfaction. I learn how to manage little and endure hardship from my many life.
Most people are still wondering why i do cater for the poor now that steemit is giving me a fulfiled life,,it is because i have tasted poverty,and i know what it mean to be poor.
I am a graduate in Agricultural science,i graduated in the year 2013,before i proceeded to pursue my education in Christian leadership. It has always been my dream to start my own farm. I love keeping different kind of animals,ranging from fish,poultry,pigs,goats,sheeps,cattle and honey bee. I love all these animals for the kind of joy they filled my life with while watching them. They all have their own unique ways to pass across a message. Smile
I tried everything i could to raise some capital to kick start my farming business. I was working from 2013 when i graduated from school till 2016 as a school teacher (in between this period i did a course in christian leadership as mentioned above),
i took this picture during my convocation.
but to my greatest surprise,i was unable to raise a penny.
I was shartered when i looked back and realised that three years had gone without generating any thing meaningful for my proposed business.
I went straight to my cusine @olawalium to discussed with him about my business idea. He had always wanted to start a farm of his own too.So we decided to collaborate to start one.
We tried to reach out to those that could help our vission,but non of them was willing to help. We tried bank loan,but their interests rate was just too high for a new business,so we resolved to be meeting people one on one to discuss the issue,non of them was willing or able to help as well.
Most of them just stop communicating with us while others made promises without fulfilling them
I took up an initiative,i discussed the idea with Mr Olajide who was a member of my church, i implored him to buy share in the business . He saw the prospect of the business and he was willing to invest money into the business
He gave me #150,000 (one hundred and fifty thousand naira),that is like four hundred and twenty US dollars. Though the money would never be enough to start the business,yet I was very happy to got the money. It was January 2017,i was so happy to kick start the year in such a manner with the hope to have a sweet 2017
I was restless and couldn't contain the happiness in me as a result of excitment on that day,immediately my cosine @olawalium returened from work,i broke the goodness to his hearing,he was happy to hear it as well.
We started planning immediately as capital was the only hinderance to our beautiful dream
We did the booking for one hundred and fifty day old chicks (laying birds). We kept them in a prepared place.
If you have ever keep day old chicken,you will notice the growth in them as a result of their feed through which use to be enough becoming not enough after few days. I was hoping for this after the fourth day,it seems to me as if the chicken were not growing not knowing another thing was happening
When they clock a week,it was time for me to give them their first Gomboro vaccine,you can give this vaccine through either oral i.e through drinking water or ocular i.e through their eyes.
So,i chose ocular method as it would help me to count their numbers.
I was unable to get the number correctly that day because they got mixed together during counting and vaccination. I just assumed they are complete.
The very next morning,when i got to the farm,i saw five of them died from an attack,my heart beat increased as a result.
So i decided to sleep in the farm on that day so as to know what attacked the chicken.. That night,i was unable to sleep at all due to the terrible experience i had.
Before i could closed my eye at all,giant rats began to infest the chicken,they killed eight instantly,i have to sit in their midst till day break. If i don't,how would i explain things to @olawaliumand Mr Olajide?
That morning,i transfered the chickes to a more secured place.
I nurtured the remaining birds till they start laying,but by this time, thirteen had died due to rat infesting the farm, it got to a time when i had nothing left on me to buy them food,i exhausted all the money on drugs and transportation. For three days,they had to fasting,they only live on water.
They were unable to recover from this problem until i decided to cut the loss and sell them off
"Starve chickens for a day,you pay for it more than a week"
We decided to Invest the little money generated from their sales on pigs,but we were duped by a trusted brother. We had no experience on the marketing side of pigs,so we end up buying one pig with the money that was enough to buy three.
The pigs failed to do well as well and their is a need for me to relocate to another area that suit farming compare to the city where i was living. So we decided to sell those pigs as well.
We then spent the money generated and with soft loan we acquired from a micro finance bank to buy two pregnant pigs which i transfered to my new area..
All these continued till around December 20.
"I only pass through 2017,i never experienced it"
December 27,my cuosine @olawalium shard with me his experience on steemit. He started using steemit in November 2017,he came across steemit through a brother who saw his write up on wordpress and took permision to use it on steemit.
That write up according to him fetch him a lot of sbd,so he urged @olawalium to be using the platform as well,all this time,i never believed anything good about steemit. I was busy looking for an end to the poverty in my life,not knowing the solution was on steemit.
It look so simple than to be true,but his testimony on the 27th of December was enough to convinced me about steemit.
At least,if everybody is lying to me about steemit,he cannot.
So we do the registration together and the account was confirmed on the 29th of December 2017.
That day was my best day in 2017,because it gave me the opportunity to lay my hands on something that can be fetching me extra income apart from farming,
"that was all i thought then anyway,i wasn't aware that steemit can actually end poverty in my life."
I embraced the opportunity with open hand,for me then,it was steemit or nothing when i saw testimonies of people already on steemit
@olawalium guided me in writing my introductory post,i could remembered him giving me a long list of tags on steemit. Smile
I was more than willing to learn,
On steemit,i have learn,unlearn and relearn and that is helping me to grow.
From my introductory post,people began to show me some love probably because they saw the element of poverty from the picture i used in introducing myself.... Smile
It was too ugly
My first breakthrough on steemit came on my third day on steemit,it was in the middle of the night,i was tired already,but i saw an art work posted by @alexandravart,i was so much in love with it. So i gave my comments on the post,immediately she replied back. I thought she fell in love with my comment too... Smile
So she gave me my first contract on steemit,she asked me to help her write something meaningful,unique and inspiring on her art work which i did,not minding my eyes that was closing already.
When i finshed with writing as she requested,i wanted to quit and sleep before i saw a post from another friend @swissclive ,I gave about three lines comment and she upvoted the comment with 100% of her voting power with a reply that my comment was the best that day,it was 28sbd which grew to 45 before i redeemed it.
It was like a dream seen that from just a comment.
I made a post about it to show how happy i was,you can read here:
https://steemit.com/story-300words/@emmakwisequote/blessings-of-that-your-little-sacrifice
Ever since then,my steemit life has never been void of quality friends who always encouraged me to do more.
I can never forget the day @stellabelle visited my blog,@everlove is such a beautiful friend i can never forget too.
I have met with so many amazing people who we might have meet if not for steemit.... Smile
When i did my first cashout,my financial life received strength. That week alone, i made up to #144,000 (one hundred and foryy four thousand). I called @olawalium to tapped me if i am sleepping.. Smile
Anyway,it was a reality,reality into the world of steenit.
Life began to show me the other side of suffering that i was used to.
Out of that many,i was able to take care of my parents,siblings and i got an appartment for my self, for prior to then,i was staying in a brother's place
I bought drugs for my mum to help her overcome her health challenge... I was so happy i could make those impacts.
I know what it mean to be in poverty,i have tasted it raw in the past,when i was able to see a means through which poverty chain can be broken,i started bringing in people into the system. I preach about steemit wherever i go.
Many people do not understand why i am doing that,somebody saw how passionate i was and asked me if someone have to reffer or bring in anybody before he can be paid or grow. The simple answer is NO.
But how can i know a way out of poverty and still leave people to suffer in their poverty?
I won't mention the names of those that are making impacts here just because i shared the information with them,because the list is a very long one now. Smile
After steemit had shown me better life than i used to,i develop passion to be helping people,no matter the language,colour or tribe.
I have been on this campaign for weeks now,i sort for those that need the touch of hand of kindness and i touch their lives in such a unique way.
I started with a lady with swollen leg,i paid for her medication to get the leg corrected
,
you can read about her here: https://steemit.com/theactsofkindness/@emmakwisequote/the-random-acts-of-kindness
I proceeded by spreading the hand of kindness to a woman with arthritis,i bought her drugs to cater for her health challenge too i was able to understand her condition because my mummy was a victim of arthritis for years too. You can read about her here: https://steemit.com/theactsofkindness/@emmakwisequote/the-random-acts-of-kindness-the-woman-with-arthritis
Emmanuel was the latest to have received such touch from my hand of kindness initiative,i registered him in school with the promise to sponsor him at least through his primary education.. You can read about him here as well:https://steemit.com/theactsofkindness/@emmakwisequote/the-random-acts-of-kindness-emmanuel-start-school
There are still many people getting touched by this random acts of kindness initiatiative. I hope to write about them shortly too,it is not to boast,but to see people doing the same.
Like i always say,we don't need to own the whole world before we touch lives. So i have decided to be helping people with 50% of every of my rewards and 100% of any donation made by the people.
Thanks to steemit for transforming my life in such a unique way. Thanks for ending poverty in my life.
This is now the new me,this is who i want to be,this is how i want to live.
Thank you for reading through
I remain myself @emmakwisequote.