| outside of Kigali and purchasing their own plot of land to live on and to raise a family. Shortly after they moved outside of Kigali , the genocide began. Jeanine and her husband were a "mixed" couple -- one was Hutu, the other Tutsi. Because of this, they were always in danger. In order to protect Jeanine and their baby daughter, Jeanine's husband suggested that they split up. Her husband left, and Jeanine remained at their home. "People would always come to our door, demanding to know 'Where is he? Who are you? Are you from his family? We have killed his family, and you must die too,' " Jeanine said. "I would always deny knowing him. I would say I was just a visitor."
"One of the last things my husband told me before he left was to never show my identity card to anyone -- to protect me and our daughter. I never heard from my husband again. After the war, I waited, one year, then two years. I never heard from him. I don't know what happened to him."
Jeanine's village was eventually liberated by Rwandan army. She left her home and fled to a camp for internally displaced people.
When the war was over, Jeanine went back to the home she had dreamed of living in with her husband. Nearly all of her belongings had been stolen during the war. She only found one bed and a table remaining in her home.
In 1999, Jeanine's in-laws insisted that she marry her brother-in-law against her wishes. With him, she had her son Eve. The following year, Jeanine's daughter Christine was old enough to enter primary school. However, Jeanine didn't have enough money to pay the school fees -- approximately $US40 a year. "I went to my second husband, my brother-in-law. I asked him for help in sending Christine, my daughter, his niece, to school. He tol d m e, 'I am not the father of this child. Educate her yourself.'"
After this, I said to him "If you don't want to educate my daughter or help us, leave here. This house was built by me an d m y husband. Leave us alone." Shortly after, Jeanine's second husband left her to raise Christine Eve on her own.
After her second husband left, Jeanine was forced to beg on the streets in order to support herself and her two children. She used to also help tend people's farms, and they would pay her in food. She had no way to earn money. "I was unhappy. I was alone. My daughter would ask me, 'Mommy, why are you always alone? Why are you always unhappy?'"
Jeanine learned about Women for Women International from the Vice Mayor for Gender in her region. “After I heard about the program, I thought ‘God, you have answere d m y prayers, thank you.'”
With her first set of sponsorship funds, she purchased seeds for beans and "groundnuts," the local term for peanuts. She rented a small plot of land, and planted the seeds. With her secon d m onth's worth of funds, she bought goats and ducks. She sells the offspring of the goats and the eggs from the ducks to others, who use them for food.
In February 2006, Jeanine had just completed her first harvest of beans and groundnuts. She harvested 50 kg worth of produce -- she can sell each kilo for 170 RWF, approximately $US.30. If she sells most of her yield, Jeanine will earn $US15. Jeanine sells her goods to her other neighbors, who use the beans and groundnuts for food and as seed for planting their own crops.
With her profits and additional sponsorship funds, Jeanine has been able to send her daughter, Christine, back to school.
"You can see how happy I am now. I sen d m y children to school. We no longer go hungry."
Jeanine also enjoys the camaraderie she has established with other women in the program and has flourished under the guidance of her rights awareness trainer. “I am so grateful that God has helpe d m e to be in this organization,” Jeanine said. “I was so isolated. I had lost love for other people. Now, I am so happy that our trainer starts our program with the words, ‘Gather together with your friends.' The most important thing for me in this program is being together and sharing with the other women in my group. We learn so much from each other.”
Jeanine has set up a savings account, and is contributing to it with her sponsorship funds and the profits from her business each month. Her house is still in desperate need of repair. When she graduates from the program, Jeanine would like to buy iron sheets for a new roof and her first door for her home so she can provide a safe place for her family. “I now see myself as a strong woman,” Jeanine says. “My daughter says, ‘Mom, I can see you are so happy now.'” |
