Fulgence Niyongana

Age: 14 years old

Time at FIDESCO: 1 year

“I would like to be a person who helps others, teaches others and is kind to children.”
-          Fulgence, June 2013

“I will be happiest when I am no longer part of the statistic that counts the number of street children in my country.”
-          Fulgence, June 2013

My story:

Fulgence was at the Transit Center for eight months. He asked to go home, and the staff and guards there told him that he had to wait for FidesCo to come and legally take him. He was brought to FidesCo, and discovered he would learn how to dance. When he first saw others dancing, he didn’t want to. Yet, he recognized that the others seemed happy. As he observed, he became inspired. He started working hard to reach the dance level of the other kids.

He originally went to live on the streets because life was too hard at home. He has bad memories from his time there.  When growing up, his family never had enough money to stay in one place. They were always on the move. His mother is dead. One day, his father took him to an old woman, hoping that she would adopt him. She took him in and then told him it was his job to beg for money on the street. She would then take the money and buy alcohol to drink. She would beat him and starve him, not giving him any food to eat.

Fulgence was sad because he didn’t receive care and love like the other kids in his neighborhood. The old woman kept him in the house behind a locked door. One day, Fulgence was crying and the neighbor came and broke through the window. The neighbors chose to adopt him. But after three years, he again left to go onto the streets. The new family was also too poor and the man was a drunk. On the streets, he asked to spend the night in various other places. When he remembers his past, he becomes angry and sad. He asks God, “why me?”

After living for eight months at FidesCo, Fulgence has changed.  Now, he has high hopes for his future and thinks that others will be proud of him. Everyday he thinks about how to change his life and his story.  He wants to re-write his story and become a great person. In the future, he wants to help his family and try to guide them.

He wants to finish his studies.

Félix Ndayisenga

Age: 15 years old

Felix is originally from Kigali. He has five brothers and two sisters, and only one parent, his mother. He left home in order to find food. His other siblings find jobs on the streets during the day and then come back home at night, but Felix stayed on the street.

One day, Felix stole a pushcart, and the police found him and took him to the Transit Center. He was there for three weeks where he would often find himself dreaming about his life.

While there, he regretted stealing the pushcart. Then one day, he saw a man from FidesCo come to the Transit Center. He put his hand up to indicate that he wanted to go to FidesCo. Felix remembers that it was a Friday when the man came back for him in a car.

On the first day, Felix didn’t like being at FidesCo, and he kept reminiscing about street life. He wanted his freedom. He used to tell the other kids to escape with him. But one day, Isidor, a staff worker at FidesCo, talked to them about the good things in life. Felix meditated about what he had said. He decided the streets were not good. He confessed to Isidor the thoughts he had been having: escaping, street life, and finding a better place where he could be free and express himself.

Over time, Felix adapted to life and FidesCo and now he feels good and likes living there. The teachers keep encouraging the boys to love each other and to support one another. They tell them that there are “no good things on the streets.”

Felix’s mindset has completely changed by now.  His dream is to become a leader because, “it’s a good career.” He wants to protect poor people because he believes he was born to help others. He is on the side of those who struggle in life. For them, he will be an advocate.

At home, Felix remembers that he was lonely. During the day, most of the kids were on the streets just trying to survive. His mom did not have a steady job, but she did odd jobs like washing people’s clothing and helping farmers. But, Felix had to leave that home life because there was no food and no chance to go to school.

When he lived on the streets, he would go to restaurants and pretend that he had enough money to order. He would eat, and then, making sure to avoid the server, he would leave. Other days he would go to rich apartments and steal shoes, clothes, and batteries, and later sell them. He lived on the street for one year. Street life was strange for Felix.  His favorite thing was stealing cell phones from other people, and yet he also liked sitting and listening to people talk about life.

Now, Felix is happy that he can live at FidesCo, but he is worried what will happen when he has to leave the center.  He always thinks about his life and his future.

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.

Passy Gakimane

Passy’s formal name is Pacifique, but he is known all over Kigali as “Passy” because he is one of the best local hip hop dancers.  Now, he is 14 years old, but he has been dancing at special events throughout Rwanda since the age of 8.  He is a completely self-taught hip hop dancer and only started learning contemporary dance with RDDC four years ago.

Unfortunately, Passy’s talent has not been enough to stabilize a safe, secure lifestyle.  He is one of four brothers that lived with a struggling mother before being forced onto the street to search for food.  He briefly lived in the shelter of another NGO in Kigali, but one night in 2009, the entire organization was shut down due to mismanagement and he found himself back on the street.

RDDC was able to sponsor Passy to go back to school in late 2010.  He now ranks as the eighth highest student in his entire class, excelling in all subjects and especially in Social Studies.

Passy will go to high school next year and we are currently looking for a group of people to sponsor his secondary education.  His tuition fees are approximately $1,600/year, or $4.38/day.

Please help us continue to give this gifted boy a chance to become educated so he can use his artistic talent wisely.

Sonrise Boarding School

Patrick received sponsorship in January 2013 to go to school.  He moved from the rehabilitation center in Kigali to Sonrise Boarding School, where he is enrolled in primary school (Grade 3).  The Sonrise teachers are already saying that Patrick is the most intelligent student yet to come from the street to their school.

When Patrick Bihoyiki arrived at the school on January 7^th, he said: “Can you please explain what is happening now to me? This is a miracle.” 

Read RDDC Country Director Eugene Dushime’s blog about Patrick going to school for the first time: http://rebeccadavisdance.com/2013/02/four-former-street-children-go-to-school/

Read Patrick’s story.

Manishimwe

I was born in the Musanze district of the Northern Province in Rwanda. I am 14 years old and I went onto the streets when I was 10 years old. I have never seen or known my father. My mother was chased out by her family when she had me as a child because my father was not present. Her family thought the boy was a bastard. My mother tried to go to the family of my father, but they also chased her away. Nonetheless, I was left there with my father’s family.
Some years ago, my mother got married to another man. During the same time, I lived with my daddy’s family. They treated me so badly; they didn’t feed me like a regular child. That is why I decided to go to the streets. On the street, I used to take drugs, but now I stopped thanks to FidesCo.

I dream about science every day. I hope that I will become a scientist and discover a sophisticated laptop that can be able to predict the future. I was so interested in what Rebecca and Eugene taught us about satellites, planets, galaxies, the sun and the stars. I wish I could get a chance to keep learning about that stuff. I can’t spend a moment without designing or drawing stars on the ground or on pieces of paper trying to think what Rebecca told us. I still have so many more questions about the Universe and the Solar System. How will I find the answers to these questions if I am living on the street?”

Bilar Bigiramana

My name is Bigirimana Bilar and I am 11 years old. My father lives in Burundi. Before I came to Rwanda, I was a street kid in Burundi. In Burundi, two things happened to me that I’ve always worried about since that time. First, I was captured on the street along with some killers by policemen. They took me to prison, and had to share the same cell with them. I didn’t sleep the whole time I was in that prison. Second, one day, Doctors Without Borders came and told me I had to be circumcised because I had developed a disease.

When I came to Rwanda, I thought my life would be better. I came here with my mother, but we struggled to find food and she died after a few months. She abandoned me in the middle of nowhere. Since then, I can only count on myself to survive.

On the street, I learned many strategies to survive: I pretended to be a blind beggar to get money; other times, I stole. The first time I was on the street, I didn’t realize that street life was hard and dangerous, especially for little kids like me. Yet, all those who passed by, liked me and gave me a lot of money. Sometimes I earned 40,000 Rwandan francs (about $65 USD) every day because I was one of the little kids living on that street. With the money, I bought a telephone, then a bicycle, but the big street kids stole it.

FIDESCO found me on the street and brought me here. I started dancing in the RDDC program at FIDESCO, but after a few days, I escaped FIDESCO’s centre and I went back to living on the street. But then, I finally realized how dangerous street life can be: people beat me and the big street kids tried to kill me many times.

I missed dancing when I was back on the street. One day, I was in a bus wondering how I could get another chance to learn how to dance. Just by coincidence, I saw Innocent (one of RDDC’s dance teachers at FIDESCO) in the same bus with me. He asked me if I still want to dance. I said, “Yes!” Innocent gave me money to buy a bus ticket to go to FIDESCO and take dance class the next Wednesday. When I came to the dance class, all the FIDESCO kids were absent because there was a special trip that day. RDDC’s Country Director, Eugene, took me to FIDESCO and asked if I could stay at the centre. They accepted me back.

I want to study and work hard because I had a dream when I was sleeping on the street that one day I should become the president of Burundi, my beloved country. I like dance because I hope that dance can drive me so far in the future. I miss school, and every time I think of school, I am worried that I have lost my chance to go to school forever.

Jean Paul Mugisha

Nickname: “The Question Asker”
Age: 10 years old
Time spent at FidesCo: Approximately 1 year

Jean Paul Mugisha is the oldest of three siblings. He lived with his parents, but his father severely beat his mother and one day he beat her so much that he was taken to prison.

“I didn’t like being home when my father was beating my mom, so I used to stay on the street and then go home late at night. I didn’t go to school.”

The police picked up Mugisha from the street one day and took him to the transit center. From there, FidesCo came and transferred him to the temporary shelter and re-integration center.

Over time, Mugisha became one of the top students in both the RDDC dance program and the IT program at FidesCo. He is quiet, focused and has proven to have an excellent memory.

“I want to go back to school and study,” says Mugisha. “I want to fight against drugs in my country and become a role model for the younger generations,” which is quite a remarkable goal for this little 10 year old!

Read more about Jean Paul Mugisha on RDDC blog: Two Naturally Talented Boys: Mugisha Jean Paul & Zidane Ndatimana

Valens Kubwimana

I’m 13 years old, and I live at FIDESCO.

I have my mom, but my dad past away. He died of aids in 2011. I have two sisters and one brother. I’m the youngest. My older sister got married and she lives with my second sister. I never wanted to stay at my sister’s place because I was burdening her husband and I cannot stay at my mom’s because she’s really sick too.

I used to stay on the street, and I used to steal things for a living.  That’s where I got caught by the police, and I was taken to a place where they keep kids who have nowhere to stay.  That’s where FIDESCO came to take me. Now I want to be good a person.  I want to go back to school if I get a chance because I know that all I want to be starts when I go back to school.  My dream – I want to be a doctor.

Innocent Mugenga

I’m 13 years old and I live at FIDESCO. I come from the street.

I was encouraged by fellow kids to come to Kigali.  During that time, I got caught by security guards, and my two friends and me were taken to a place where kids who have nowhere to stay are put.

I have my mom.  My dad lives in another country. I have only one arm. I lost my left arm in an accident.

But I love to dance, though there some moves which I cannot do perfectly because of my lost arm.  I really believe I can dance. And I want to go back to school and study so that I can help myself in the future.  I need to help my mom too, and I hope one day I will be a director of an institute which helps kids.