Alphonse Nzayisenya

Age: 13 years old
Time spent at FidesCo: 13 months (as of June 2013)

Both of Alphonse’s parents are alive, but when he lived at home, his father did nothing for the family. Every time Alphonse asked his father to pay for his school fees, he beat him. Alphonse tried to live with his grandmother, but she could not pay for his school fees. His grandmother wanted his father to be more responsible for his kids. She could pay for either his school materials or his school fee, but not both.

Alphonse left to the streets because his father refused to pay his school fees. His father said he should find his own money for school. Alphonse was on the street for three months, until he was taken to the Transit Center.

When Alphonse arrived at FidesCo, he originally didn’t want to dance. It was so hard for him that he would stay outside of the classroom, making himself believe that dance was unimportant. Once when Rebecca was there, she told him to come inside, but he refused.

On one occasion, he tried to participate, but he didn’t like it so he left. Then he thought, “No, it’s better to continue trying in order to see what it’s like.” He started taking the dance class regularly. Then, when he went back to FidesCo afterwards, he would practice the steps over and over. The teachers started to tell him that he was improving, and that was the moment when he truly became interested.

Now Alphonse feels really good when he dances. He is confident because he can do all the stretches in class.

Alphonse used to copy the other students in IT class because he didn’t know how to use the computer. He finally learned where to click and how a computer works. When Innocent, one of his teachers, told him he succeeded on his computer test, he was so happy. Alphonse remembers that he loved getting his first email. He thought he was dreaming and said, “how amazing it is that people can communicate like this!”

If Alphonse could ask for one thing in the world, he would ask to go to school and to study.