From direct provision to UCC graduate — the inspiring story of Joan Omosefe Osayande

Joan Omosefe Osayande graduated with first class honours from UCC, and has recently secured a postgraduate degree place working on Parkinson’s disease research in Professor Aideen O’Sullivan’s Lab at UCC. Picture: Daragh Mc Sweeney/Provision

An inspirational young woman who fled Nigeria on her own and spent two years living in direct provision in Galway, has graduated from University College Cork UCC.

Joan Omosefe Osayande, 23, said her graduation with first-class honours, with a BSc in Medical and Health Sciences, thanks to a 'sanctuary scholarship', just seven years after her arrival in Ireland, is proof that with hard work and determination, you can achieve anything.

“When I was trying to get into university as a person living in direct provision, at that time you could not necessarily get into third level because of funding and the State wasn’t paying for it,” she said.

“So I kept asking different universities and UCC was one of them, and they were launching their sanctuary scholarship, and I applied and I got it.

It just shows what I can do if I don’t give up, if I just keep pushing. I’m overwhelmed and emotional at the same time.

She has now been announced as the first recipient of the Daniel and Margaret Cronin Advancing Access PhD Scholarship, which she will use to research Parkinsons disease.

Inspiring journey 

Joan was born in Benin, Nigeria, in 1998. She never knew her father. Her mother died in 2006, and she was separated from her older sister, Faith, soon afterwards.

She did not have an opportunity to go to secondary school and in 2015, she arrived in Ireland alone, and was placed in direct provision in Galway.

Joan told earlier this year of how living in direct provision left her feeling stripped of her human right to privacy and dignity.

In a keynote address to over 200 UCC entrance scholarship award winners, she said: 

I was terrified and confused when I arrived — so many people from different cultural backgrounds living together in poverty, with no access to cooking facilities, no access to private spaces. I was stripped of my human rights to privacy and dignity.

“I lost my appetite for food and my mental and physical health suffered.” 

She spoke of her relentless efforts to overcome the many barriers to education she faced while in direct provision, and of how St Vincent de Paul came to her rescue, funding her to complete a FETAC level five course in biomedical and laboratory techniques.

Despite the challenges of studying in direct provision, she excelled in her course and secured residency in 2018, describing that as “a turning point” in her life, fuelling her ambitions and making her even more courageous.

Joan Omosefe Osayande lived and studied in direct provision for a number of years, not letting the barriers to education that stood in her way stifle her dreams. Picture: Daragh Mc Sweeney/Provision

She began emailing third-level institutions enquiring about scholarships, before she became aware of UCC’s Sanctuary Scholarship programme.

She was offered a place in August 2018 and thanks to support from the college, she was placed with a family who offered her a room in their home.

"I felt that I had landed and landed safely,” she said.

I was courageous and persistent. I took chances and worked hard and stayed focused on my goal.

“I was not alone however on this journey. And I could not have made it alone.

“Strangers looked after me and many offered a helping hand.

“I met people who were passionate, patient and caring, who wanted the best for me, people with open minds, open hearts.

“You are the wind beneath my wings.”