Figaro was born in Port-au-Prince, but her parents didn’t have the means to adequately provide for her, so they sent her to live with relatives in a small rural community called Abricots when she was very little. When she started school in Abricots, her teachers recognized that she was exceptionally gifted, so they encouraged her family to send her to school in Jeremie, which was the nearest major city. So she moved in with her aunt and uncle in Jeremie, and she has lived with them ever since. She is especially close with her aunt, who never had biological children. Her aunt sees her as a daughter, and she considers her aunt her mother.
Her aunt, a teacher, and her uncle, a pastor, have been able to create a stable life for her, but it hasn’t been easy financially. Figaro was one of the top students in her high school graduating class, and she is fluent in English, serving as an English teacher at Jeremie’s top English school. Aware of her intellectual gifts, her relatives were determined to find a way to send her to college, so several members of her extended family planned to pitch in to pay for her school. They had the best of intentions, but when all was said and done, they didn’t have nearly enough money. Determined to find a way, she took an entrance exam for prospective freshman students at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, the top nursing school in Jeremie. She had no idea how she would afford it, but she took the next action on faith. She scored in the top 5 out of more than 200 applicants and that’s why she was recommended to our program and eventually received a Thrive Ansanm scholarship.
