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Professor Miriam Were: Enhancing the qualities of concentration & focus for success in scholarships and service

Uganda 2018.10.08

On the 14th and 15th of August, Ashinaga Uganda was honored to receive a visit from Professor Miriam Were, Chancellor of Moi University and member of the Kenjin-Tatsujin International Advisory Council. Professor Were is a world-renowned public health advocate and among her many achievements is her contributions to HIV/AIDs prevention in Kenya as the Chair of Kenya’s National AIDS Control Council from 2003 to 2009. She is also the recipient of many awards including the first Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize.

Professor Were gave a speech to the scholars of the 2018 cohort of the Ashinaga Africa Initiative. We would like to share the first part of her speech below. If you are interested in the full speech, you can find it here.

Thoughts To Ashinaga Scholars On Concentration & Focus

Being associated with Ashinaga and a great man and mind like President Yoshiomi Tamai, we all need to aim at making great contributions to our own lives, to the lives of others and to the world. This is particularly so for Ashinaga Scholars who are being supported by and through Ashinaga.  I believe that each Ashinaga Scholar wants to be part of the Ashinaga greatness. I would like to put it to you that the ability to concentrate and focus is very important for scholarly success and for success in service that promotes the well-being of humanity. Here are some thoughts that I have found to enhance the capacity to concentrate and focus.

Realizing How Good Life Has Been To You

We all live in the shadow of those who are no longer with us. There are also those who are alive who faced the challenges that Ashinaga Scholars now face but are not Ashinaga Scholars because they were not lucky enough to be selected into the Ashinaga program. Therefore, every Ashinaga Scholar should be deeply grateful that the Ashinaga hand has reached them. A sense of deep gratitude is very important because it calms down the mind and helps us to feel good. I have had challenges in my life and yet the hand of compassion has often picked me out of those challenges and difficulties and placed me in situations that made it possible for me to benefit from various programs. I have felt deeply grateful for every opportunity and this has helped me to concentrate and focus in order to achieve success, so I could benefit from the opportunities that came my way. I recommend a sense of deep gratitude for life and its opportunities as very important for developing concentration and focus that you may succeed in what you do.

Read the full speech on Professor Miriam Were’s Kenjin-Tatsujin page.

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