It’s a beautiful day. The sun is lighting up the house, there’s no sounds but pouring water and happy, singing birds outside. It’s a good day to be alive in Kibagabaga, Rwanda.
Two days ago, we returned from a week long stay in Ntarama, Rwanda. There we slept on the floors of child-headed household homes and were privileged with the chance to do so with true heros.
Meet Alice.
She’s a 30 year old woman and head of her household since the death of her parents in 1994. Those two siblings are now on their own, trying to make their way with internships and hopes of finding successful work in Kigali. She has two sons who she’s acquired through a certain social problem in Rwanda. When a girl is the head of her household in Rwanda, it’s typical for a man to come and offer to help with school fees of the children, to pay for food for dinner and to take interest in their issues. Then when the day of his visit is closing and the children are in bed, he’ll take advantage of his placement in that relationship and request sexual favors. Since he’s helped the family that day, the girl feels obligated to oblige him. Expectedly, a child is born, more go hungry and devastation is closer than hope.
Alice currently doesn’t have a publicly known way of earning money. She’s sick with an intestinal disease that prevents her from working. Her prayer is that her sons will learn well, as they grow, to provide financially for the family in her place.
Her personal story is moving, discouraging, and heroic all at the same time. She survived the genocide with her brother and sister, but her parents were killed. In recovering, she worked in a field for the length of each day, every day for a simple 500 francs daily. To get to that field she paid 200 francs a day. So in turn she worked for just enough money for school fees for her brother. There was very little left at the end of the month for food. Someone offered to help them financially, and that night, also made Alice pregnant. A married man also offered to give them a place to live, rent-free for four years. Each day of those four years, he raped Alice. A second son was conceived. Today, an NGO has provided housing for Alice and her family. There her life is formed around providing for her two sons, praying that her brother and sister can start generating some income to feed her, an std that’s crippled her and a reputation that’s less than commendable.
Her future is uncertain. Sadly, there’s no current ministry to their village. Hopefully, in time, that will change.
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