2025 TESTED ME, BUT IT COULD NOT BREAK ME

As the sun sets on 2025, I find myself slowing down, not because the race is over, but because the journey almost took the breath out of me.

This is a pause of gratitude and a pause of survival.

It's a moment to acknowledge that this year didn’t just take my time, it reached deep into my body, my spirit, my leadership and my faith, and asked questions I never imagined I would have to answer.

2025 was to me a Year of the Fire.

It's the year my body became a battlefield.

It's the year of a fibroid diagnosis.

The year of cold hospital rooms and multiple surgeries.

The year I experience a fatal car accident and asking myself why I was still alive.

It's the year I lived on a sickbed watching opportunities I had prayed for pass me by. I won’t pretend it didn’t hurt. It did so deeply. Not just the physical pain, but the quiet grief of feeling paused while life kept moving.

And the weight wasn’t mine alone.

My ecosystem bled this year.

We buried four parents across our staff and partner families.

I watched a member of my team fight for their life after a brutal attack.

I watched others battle illness and the violation of theft.

There were many nights when 'success' wasn’t even a language I could speak but survival was the goal.

Some days, staying afloat felt like a miracle on its own.

And Yet… Grace Found Me.

Looking back now, what humbles me most is this:

Even in the fire, I was not consumed.

Somehow, quietly, steadily, grace kept showing up.

In all these, 2025 saw our work breathing.

I stood at CSW69 in New York on invitation of UN Women, carrying the mission of Girls Education Mission International into global rooms.

I won three global awards honoring work rooted in nonprofit, humanitarian services and rural communities.

My team Initiative emerged 1st place globally in the Local Innovators Program.

I was entrusted with leadership as Regional Coordinator of the YALI RLC Alumni Association.

And our work on Gender-Based Violence echoed in spaces like the World Bank and IMF in Washington DC.

I was selected to participate in the 31st Nigerian Economic Summit. A forum for national economic discuss.

In the middle of my own pain, the Fibroid Foundation Nigeria Chapter was born, turning something deeply personal into a shield for other women walking the same road.

This year taught me something I will never forget:

You can be healing and still be leading.

You can be grieving and still be growing.

You can be tested and still be trusted with heavy responsibility.

As I look ahead 2026, Girls Education Mission International turns 15.

Fifteen years of sacrifice.

Fifteen years of holding on.

Fifteen years of believing, sometimes with trembling hands.

I see now that 2025 was not a punishment but a closure. I consider it the llast hard labor before something permanent is born.

We are stepping out of survival mode and into sustainability.

The next chapter is about systems that last, leadership that multiplies and impact that does not depend on one person, but on shared vision and collective strength.

I want you to walk this road with me.

To mark our 15th Anniversary, I am inviting you to support our Anniversary Fundraiser to help build the foundation that will carry GEM International into the next decade and beyond.

🔗 Support GEM International: https://www.globalgiving.org/fundraisers/anniversary-fundraiser-from-survival-to-sustainability/

And to every woman quietly fighting a health battle, I see you.

In 2026, the Fibroid Foundation Nigeria enters a new chapter. We are moving from awareness to action.

🔗 Support the Fibroid Foundation: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/fund-the-fibroid-foundations-nigeria-chapter-for--2026

Yes, 2025 tested me.

It broke my heart but it did not break my spirit.

It prepared me.

It refined me.

It strengthened my resolve.

Here’s to the healing.

Here’s to the legacy.

Here’s to 2026.

With love and resilience,

Keturah Shammah