My name is Dominique Savier Nshimiyimana and I am 18 years old. I am in my second year of secondary school (Senior Two). I live in Nyamirambo, Kigali. My dad left my mom when I was a baby. I have never seen my father. Sometimes I hear people saying that he lives in Uganda. My mom and I are homeless. I I am the first born in my family. The second born lives with my aunt, and the third lives with my mom in a very small house with only one room.
I went to the street when my mom remarried.…
My name is Raphael Bunani. I am 17 years old. I go to school and I am my second year of high school (Senior 2).
Both of my parents are dead. My father died a little bit after the 1994 genocide and my mother was poisoned when I was 10 years. Then, my sister raised me but she also died after a few months. Her husband got remarried and his new wife beat me. I left his family and became a street kid.
On the street, I was sleeping one night when there was a police raid. I was a taken from the street and brought to a transition centre where I met FIDESCO staff for the first time.…
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.…
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.…
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. …