From Loss to Light: Sifa’s Story

I was born in Congo. I am 19 years old. In our family, we were only two children—my younger brother and me—and we lived with both our parents, though only for a very short time. While my mother was pregnant with my little brother, my father became seriously ill. The very night my brother was born was the same night our father passed away.

After our father’s death, life quickly became unbearably difficult. And not long after, our mother also passed away. We were left alone, just me and my baby brother, trying to survive in a world that had suddenly become so dark and cruel. We had no one nearby to turn to, as our mother was from Congo and our father was from Rwanda. We were far from any family.

At the time, I was just four years old, and my little brother was only two. We were living in unimaginable hardship when, by the grace of God, our grandmother—our father’s mother—came all the way from Rwanda to search for us in Congo. She didn’t stop until she found us. She brought us into her care and tried her very best to raise us there in Congo.

She did all she could until I turned eight and my brother was six. Then she brought us to Rwanda, hoping for a better future. She enrolled us in school, but even then, getting an education was a constant struggle. Life was still very hard. My grandmother, though aging, never gave up on us. She worked tirelessly to provide what little she could.

When I reached the fourth year of primary school, I had become aware enough of our situation to want to help. During school holidays, I sat down with my grandmother and told her I wanted to work to earn money for school supplies. So she found ways to provide us with food while I took on small jobs—washing clothes or picking coffee during harvest season—just so I could buy my own school materials.

I am so deeply grateful to my grandmother. She loved us and took us in when she could have walked away. Not everyone would take on the burden of raising their orphaned grandchildren, especially in her old age. Today, she is 90 years old and still trying to support us as best as she can.

I am also incredibly thankful to Arise Rwanda, an organization that came into my life as a beacon of hope. Out of many children in my community of Boneza Sector, they chose me, and that changed everything. Because of them, I now eat three meals a day. I sleep on a mattress. For the first time, I feel like I have dignity.

Thank you, Arise Rwanda. You believed in me, and I will work hard so that you never regret that decision. May God bless you abundantly.