Rwanda “I think about my parents although I know it is hard to find them”
ABEHO*, 13, RWANDA
· Genevieve, 79– Foster mother
*Names changed to protect identity
Save the Children has provided health, nutrition, and other services including case management for child protection and Sexual and Gender Based Violence to Burundian refugees since 2015. Save the Children has been at the forefront of emergency response interventions to ensure that children in Mahama Refugee Camp and reception centers for Burundian refugees survive, learn, and are protected
At the age of 13 years old, Abeho arrived alone as an unaccompanied child in Rwanda in 2015, when the first influx of Burundian refugees arrived in Rwanda and other neighbouring countries following the conflict that spiked due to the late President Pierre Nkurunziza presidential election seeking third term in office.
Save the Children’s Child Protection department works to match vulnerable and unaccompanied children with families through its Alternative Care Program. Through this program, Abeho was placed in the care of Genevieve, 79. Genevieve has raised Abeho since 2015 as a foster mother.
Abeho’s Story in His Own Words:
I was separated from my parents back in Burundi, the grandmother who is now my foster mother picked me up, while fleeing the conflict in Burundi. She took me to her home to leave with her and her other children.
I used to call my foster mother grandmother before I realized she was not my biological family. I don’t know about my parents, because I was separated with them while I was still very young and I don’t know their whereabouts.
Recently I was told that my father and mother are back in Burundi. Although, I don’t know much about my parents I feel a void in my heart every time I think about them.
I wonder when I will ever meet and be with my parents again.
What I can ask Save the Children or anyone else, is to help me to meet and be reunited with my parents.
My foster mother who is caring for me here is a really nice person, but living separately from my biological parents is the worst feeling for me. Sometimes when I make a mistake like any other child would, I am traumatized with the idea that the family caring for me can abandon me and say they don’t want me anymore.
Project Background:
Save the Children provides case management and psychosocial support to vulnerable children, including unaccompanied or separated children and those at risk of abuse, exploitation, neglect, and violence. Save the Children supports family tracing and reunification for child refugees in Rwanda. In collaboration with ICRC, UNHCR and MINEMA, in 2021 to date, Save the Children has reunited 21 unaccompanied and separated children with their families in cross border and in country reunification.
