I am 18 years old. I am an orphan and I live with my brother in Kigali.
The two most important things that I respect are life and school. I love to dance, and I dream of becoming the most famous dancer in Rwanda and all over the world.
For me now, my goal is finish my studies. If I find support for my school fees, I will be able to obtain knowledge and then change my life by myself.…
I was born in 1990 into a family with three children. My father died in the genocide, and I lived with my mother thereafter.
My mother re-married in 1997, but my step-father would not accept me as their child and he would beat me. I tried to do lots of small jobs to help the family, but still my step-father said that I did nothing. It was hard for my mother to see this happen to me, and had high-blood pressure and went to the hospital.
The doctors could not help her and they sent her back home even though she was still sick. …
I am 18 years old. I live with my mother because my father has passed away. There are five children in my family. I love my family, especially my mother and my little brother.
When I lived at home, there was no way to go to school. Eventually, I decided to live on the streets until I came to FIDESCO. FIDESCO paid my school fees and encouraged me to move back to live with my family. Life on the streets was too difficult. I saw many children die, some turn to prostitution and others being tortured.
In life, I really like to study. …
I am 18 years old and live in Gikondo, which is part of Kigali. I live with my mother, my sister and one brother. My father died during the genocide. He was a good man – a man of integrity. But unfortunately, he died when I was still very young.
When my father died, our life at home was hard and I decided to live on the street. Living on the street is the same as living on your own. Nobody cares. If you get sick, you just sit there – nobody cares. You don’t have anything to do. I was six years old when I started living on the street. …
I am 16 years old. I live in Kimisagara in Kigali. I live with my brothers and sisters, but I do not live with my father because he has a drinking problem. My mother died in 2000 when I was five years old. No one was at home to help me or pay for me, so I left to go live on the streets. I slept under the bridge at night. I would survive by taking a tree and transforming it into charcoal. Then, I would sell the charcoal and use that money to buy food.
If we were sick, we could not go to the hospital because we did not have money.…