Ndayishimiye
Gisagara Community
Hope Companion: First UMC, Mansfield

Ndayishimiye, 15 years old, has been caring for his two younger brother Nkomeje, 13, and Zigama, 10, since his parents died three years ago. Because he was only 12 years old at the time, his only option for providing for his family was to beg the neighbors for food. When up to a week would pass with no one willing or able to give a handout, the boys would resort to stealing from farms out of desperate hunger. They ate what little food they got raw, with no way to cook their food. Ndayishimiye and his brothers would frequently endure beatings when caught stealing – having to often make the choice between starvation and lashings.

After several months of living in desperate poverty, the boys began to suffer from skin diseases, intestinal worms, and malnutrition. Neighbors turned them away because of their poor hygiene. Ndayishimiye and his brothers were left homeless, having to sleep in abandoned shelters when they could find them.  The family roasts potatoes over a fire in an abandoned shelter they were staying in. 

When Ndayishimiye joined ZOE Ministry’s Orphan Empowerment Program, he was finally able to find hope. He joined a Working Group of fellow orphans, and now had community of peers that accepted him and his brothers. Because of their desperate state, ZOE Ministry’s staff provided immediate interventions to improve the boys’ health, including giving them access to a bath for the first time in years, medications to treat their chronic illnesses and skin problems, training on health and hygiene, and teaching them how to cook and prepare food properly.

The Working Group, many of whom were in impoverished situations like Ndayishimiye’s, started a small business together of breeding and selling rabbits, giving the group a source of income and a means of improving food security quickly. Ndayishimiye and his siblings were given the task of collecting grasses for the rabbits, to help them move from years of stealing and begging to learning the value and benefit of work. For their work, the group provides them with food to eat.

Together, Ndayishimiye and his group are training on farming, animal husbandry, HIV/AIDS prevention, small business management, and other topics to teach them how to provide for their families. With the rabbit business flourishing and training underway, community leaders will soon donate land for families in the group to start plantations of corn, cassava, bananas, coffee, and other crops they can generate income with.

ZOE Ministry will provide the seeds and tools needed, as well as micro-grants for them to start other small businesses such as selling food and drinks, and breeding chickens and goats.

Ndayishimiye and the orphans in this community, who were once suffering from extreme poverty, are now beginning their journey to empowerment and self-sufficiency. Thanks to your support, Ndayishimiye will soon be able to fulfill his dreams of providing plenty of food for his family, and a proper home for them to live in.