Assumpta Umutesi

I am 19 years old.  I live in Kigali.  I know about FIDESCO and this program because the Director of FIDESCO is the father of one of my schoolmates.

I grew up in KABUGA village.  After the genocide, I left the Western Province where I was living and somehow ended up in an orphanage.  I was three years old at that time, so I don’t remember anything.  From 1994 to 2001, I lived there and it was a good life.  They cared for me and we were educated.

But, in 2001, the orphanage closed.  They asked families to take the children.  A volunteer took me.  That time was so difficult for me.  I lived in bad conditions.  Later, I went to live with some other people, but they sent us out.  Something happened to me and I was in an abnormal mood.  I went to the hospital.  Then, another volunteer came and took me to her house.  I think that was in 2006.  I improved there and that volunteer was taking care of other orphans too.

In 2009, there was another problem and that volunteer’s house closed.  I was a student at that time.  I went to school, but during the vacation period, I was sent to live with another family.  It was like being a nomad.  At that time, I started to ask myself what were my options.  I asked that volunteer to help me try and find my parents if they were still alive.  In 2011, in April, she told me that she found out where my parents had lived.  It was in the Western Province near the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  The volunteer told me what happened: during the genocide, my mom escaped to the Western Province but she died.  Yet, some of my brothers (who were born of my father but with a different mother) were still alive.

I met my brothers for the first time in June 2011.  It was wonderful for me to know that I have brothers.  My brothers were also very happy to meet me, but their mother would not accept me.  She thought I was just there to ask for money, land or a house from my father.

I asked my brothers to tell me if they knew the story of my birth.  Eventually, they told me.  My mother lived with my aunt because my aunt was sick and could not do everything for herself.  My mom wanted to be there to help her.  Unfortunately, the husband of my aunt slept with my mother – maybe it was rape.  I was born at that time.  All of my family had made the decision to never tell anyone what happened; it was a secret.

When I was told all of that information, I asked myself if I was a sinner?  It caused me to think about men and I asked why I was born that way.  I tried to accept myself – this is who I am.  I hope that I will be in good health and my future will be better.  That’s why I have to study hard and take care of myself in order to achieve all of my goals.

Next year, I will start Senior Six, the last year of secondary school in Rwanda.  I wish to continue my studies.  I try to study as much as possible in order to fulfill my goals.  It is the only way to live for me.  I wish to maximize my education.  Now, I study history, geography and economics, but I want to become a businesswoman after studying law at university.  I don’t have any support right now to go to university, but I believe that God will help me finish school.  God is the only father and mother I have.