Hammed Kayode Alabi is a nonprofit leader, author and social entrepreneur, an SDGs Youth Champion, and Educator with 13 years of experience in active citizenship and volunteering. He is the Founding Executive Director for Kayode Alabi Leadership and Career Initiative (KLCI).
He earned a Bachelor’s of Science Education in Human Kinetics from the University of Ilorin in Nigeria, where he emerged as the Best Graduating Student, 2014/2015 set. He also completed his Masters degree in Africa and International Development at the prestigious University of Edinburgh through the Mastercard Foundation Scholarship.
Hammed currently works as the Educational Mentoring Coordinator at Refugee Education (UK), where he currently manages the mentoring hub in West London and connects young refugees/asylum seekers between the ages of 14 – 25 years to mentors for educational support.
United Kingdom is one of the few countries in the world that are making concerted efforts to attract international students to institutions of higher learning. However, foreign students’ personal experiences are showing both pleasant and unpleasant experiences faced by them while studying in United Kingdom institutions. Hammed Kayode Alabi shares his story.
As a student from Nigeria, West Africa region, moving away from home to a foreign land can be a challenge. You’re in new surroundings, you don’t know anybody. You might be feeling the pinpricks of tears. You try to hold them back.
He says, “Not everyone would tell you what it means to cope with the Cold, the weather, feeling sleepy when it is 3:00 pm because it’s dark and you have to turn in an assessment. And if you have dry skin like me, having to deal with winter hitch and waking up midnight scratching your body. And calling NHS to say you are dying and they replied that if you are dying call 911 or take paracetamol. And for someone who loves to engage and thrive in in-person sessions, having your classes online. More so, combined with nursing ulcers and in between turning in assessments and still watching out for people.
“These are some of the things people don’t get to tell you but sometimes we get to see the beautiful photos.”
Hammed also says, “Sometimes, when I read people say, he didn’t respond to me, know that for everyone that I respond to, I spend additional hours midnight covering for my course work! So that I am relevant at both ends.”
From his own words, Hammed also describes his transformative and supportive experiences at UK university, he narrates the overwhelming support he received from MasterCard Foundation and his friends which was tremendous.
“Graduate school is extremely hard and because of the high expectations we sometimes have on ourselves, it creates disappointment. I lost my confidence at some point. Some are due to my academic work and the feedback. Until I had to start reflecting on the process and what I truly need to learn that would get me into the next stage of my career and life. Academic is great, but sometimes when we focus on the results. It may affect your spirit. So for me, it was sometimes understanding the marks did not define that kept me sane. It was the constant conversation with self that kept me alive and that was how I scaled through and this would not have been possible without all the support the MasterCard Foundation offered me and the beautiful people along the line. Especially those who checked up on me in those moments of hard times and in that limbo of what next.”
Hammed talks about people’s expectation from him, his personal and professional development and how he did a lot of voluntary work and internships while studying.
“I could recall when anyone asked me what is the next thing? What is the next job? I had responded, I do not know but what I am sure of is that I will be present because opportunities of the future are in the present. Most times we focus on the future forgetting being present is what leads to the future and that was what happened to me. That was how I engaged in co-creating a mentorship programme for refugees in Ugandan through the MasterCard Foundation, Foundation for All (FFA) project to getting an offer to write a placement based dissertation on the same project exploring the experiences of refugees in accessing higher education through bridging education programs in Uganda. And how the dissertation will be part of the case study write-up, which will also serve as a tool for policymakers to adopt when considering creating an accelerated and bridging education program for refugees to access higher education.”
“My dissertation period was the best moment of my life because I got to see real-time challenges and create solutions to them.”
Hammed who has seen more than his share of challenges, added that, “The truth is no one is having it easy and we need to reflect on what true empathy and compassion means. Empathy is not just from thinking that someone needs to understand me and understand my pains. It’s also understanding that the person who wants to help too has things that they are going through that you know nothing about. That sometimes that they do overstretch and overburden themselves for you.”
“So before you get mad at someone for not responding, think about what is happening on their end and don’t just focus on receiving. You should also give,” he said.
