Do you want a membership. Fill this form
Join Us
Do you want a membership. Fill this form
Alphonse is a 9-year-old boy. He is quiet and reserved. He is the last person you would think of as a trouble maker. His personality however does not stop him from having lots of friends. He would be home alone if it wasn’t for his four friends from the neighbourhood who come to keep him acompany when his elder sister Jeanne d’ Arc 12 is at school. . They play a number of games including skipping ropes. Alphonse also goes to school in the afternoon shift as soon as her sister comes back home because they don’t want to leave the home alone.
Alphonse and Jeanne d’ Arc were abandoned by their father John in January 2014. Before the death of their mother in 2010, life was different. “Our father worked had to get us food, clothes and we went to school. When our mother died, things changed,” explains Jeanne d’Arc 12 who is currently the head of the family. They both live in a 3 roomed house that was built by their father. The walls are old but firm. They are made of stick/wood and mud. The house is roofed with silver iron-sheets.
After the death of their mother, their father married another wife, Glorious 32. “My father’s second marriage caused lots of problems in our home. They always fought over almost everything. Sometimes Dad would run away for days, and then came back,” she said. “Their constant fights and the hostility of our step-mother forced our elder brother Albert to leave home. He became a street child.”
One day, their father John could not take it any longer. This time, he left for good. “We thought he was coming back as he always did. We waited for two weeks but he did not,” she said. Their step-mother also abandoned them two weeks after the disappearance of her husband. Jeanne d’ Arc and Alphonse were left alone. They still remember the first night they spent alone in the house, scared and hungry. “I can never forget that day because it was on New Year’s Day. We were at Church when she left. She never said goodbye. We came back home and she was gone. She hadn’t even cooked, we started on a festive day,” she recalls. At only 12 years, Jeanne d’ Arc had to become the head of the family. She dropped out of school. She had to cook, clean the house every morning, but the most difficult task was keeping food at the table. “Sometimes we spend a whole day with nothing to eat. When our elder brother, who lived on streets, heard that we were living alone, he started visiting us once in a while,” she said.
Albert was a street kid. Although the government of Rwanda is working hard to get all children off the streets, AIDS and poverty continue to force many children back onto the streets. These vulnerable children live on food from garbage cans and the occasional generosity of passes by. They also do difficult jobs like helping people to carry heavy luggage to and from market places for as little money as 200Rwf (0.2USD). “Albert came once a week. He mostly bought beans and sweat potatoes that were enough for at least 2 days. We ate once a day, usually at night to ensure that the little food that he brought took us through the week,” explains Jeanne d’ Arc. The situation worsened when their only provider Albert was arrested by police and put in a guarded rehabilitation center. The government of Rwanda has designed a program that aims at getting all children off the streets to facilities, where they get counselling and psychotherapy help before they are reunited with their families. Albert was to spend at least three months in that facility. “We waited for him the whole week. He did not come. God however did not let us to die. He helped us in a different way. A group of children came to visit us with food, soap, clothes,” she said.
They were members of the children’s forum from Gasaka sector. LOH has trained and equipped village based child protection committees and children’s forum members in various sectors of Nyamagabe district located in southern Rwanda. These children were trained on child rights and are working to ensure that their fellow children are protected from any form of abuse. “We were so happy; it felt like God had sent us angels to help us. They gave us a lot of food, oil and washing soap. They asked any other way they wanted us helped. I told them we wanted to go back to school,” she explains.
According to Christine 17, the president of the children’s forum in the area, the team went to Jeanne d’Arc’s former school and explained what these children were going through. “They did not have school uniform. We needed the school to allow them study without uniform. We advocated for them to get books and the village leader in charge of social affairs provided books and pens. Lucky enough, the school was very much willing to help.” she said. According to Jeanne d’Arc’s class teacher Claver Mudacumura, he was sad when he had what these children were going through. “I knew their elder brother who dropped out of school to become a street child. I taught him and performed well in class. When I heard what these children were going through, I encouraged my fellow teachers to visit them, which we did.” According to Claver, teachers have once in a while contributed money to buy food for Alphonse and Jeanne d’Arc including rice, cooking oil, beans, sugar and salt.
“I thank the children’s forum members that are discovering and are speaking out for abused children like Jeanne d’Arc and Alphonse. I did not know children can make a difference in the community. I don’t know what would happen to them if their case wasn’t brought to light, they would probably die of anger” he said.
Claver said that Jeanne d’Arc was always sad and too reserved the time she reported at school but through counseling and continuous interaction with other children, she has fully recovered from the physiologically trauma. She feels loved by teacher and buy the children’s forum members who come to visit her regularly.
The local leaders are also working hard to find and bring back their father. Meanwhile, local leader are looking for a guardian to come and live with them, as they continue searching for their father. According to Jeanne d’Arc, spending time with her friends at school makes her very happy. Her hope has been restored. “I want to be a doctor when I grow up,” she said.
"The names of the people and chickens that feature in this story have been changed to protect client’s confidentiality"
