Former Rwandan refugee with a big heart for his fellow orphans
A theatrical performance for HIV orphans at Amahoro Foundation's
educational events; Inset left: The foundation's founder, Kayitare
Wayitare, confers with a member. Photos/Cyril Ndegeya
By Gilbert Mwijuke Special Correspondent
Posted Saturday, February 8 2014 at 13:25
Kayitare Wayitare's parents fled Rwanda after the 1959 uprising that
deposed the king and sent many Tutsis into exile.
According to their persecutors, they are foreigners, extraneous
competitors for the small piece of land that is available. They must
die, the Hutu extremists would vow. So, any Tutsi with some
initiative, luck and wits runs as far away from this place as
possible.
But not every direction is a propitious one. Whoever goes west to
Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo, or DRC) will worsen the
situation because they will stumble upon some of the thickest jungles
on the continent. Those going to Burundi in the south will also err –
because, even there, they risk persecution by the Hutus of that
country.
Lost parents to HIV/Aids
Only Uganda in the north held some promise: There, Mr Wayitare's
parents would find the fertile lands of central Uganda – the lush and
splendid Pearl of Africa. It is at Kyotera, in the central Ugandan
district of Rakai, that they would make their way in the hope that
they would survive, that life here would be better.
But alas! Mr Wayitare's parents become part of the central Ugandan
population that would later be wiped out – almost entirely – by the
outbreak in the early 1980s of the HIV/Aids pandemic.
When Mr Wayitare was about two years old, his parents succumbed to the
scourge, leaving the toddler and his siblings to the elements.
Life became very hard for the children. However, their main problem
was their statelessness. They could not return to Rwanda, their home
country, and even though life in Uganda had become tricky, they
endured it. Somehow, they survived.
Somehow – that is how best to describe their situation, its
delicateness, its uncertainty. Their situation worsened by the fact
that they were strangers from another country, another culture,
another language.
They did not know whether they would ever return to their home
country, although they viewed this question with indifference,
preoccupied as they were with something else: How to survive.
The youngest in the family, Mr Wayitare grew up in an orphanage in
Kyotera as his siblings scattered to different parts of Uganda in
search of a livelihood. At Compassion International Uganda, the
orphanage that took care of children that had lost their parents to
HIV/Aids, Mr Wayitare got a chance to attend primary school. But, even
here, life was not that good: He lacked education materials and basics
such as soap and sugar.
He then joined Namalembe Secondary School in Iganga, in the east, for
his Ordinary Level education, and moved in with his elder sister, who
was married there. But life in Iganga was even worse as his
brother-in-law disliked him.
By the time he completed 'O' Level in 1999, he had read and heard so
much about Rwanda that he could not resist the urge to relocate to his
motherland. So, in 2000, he embarked on a long journey to the land of
his ancestors.
Do 'something for my country'
"After reading and hearing a lot about the RPF fighters who liberated
Rwanda, I felt that I also had to do something for my country,"
recalled the soft-spoken 28-year-old. "I arrived in Rwanda with a
resolve to join the army; I felt that it was the only way I could
contribute to the development of my country."
http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/Rwanda/News/Former-Rwandan-refugee-with-a-big-heart-for-his-fellow-orphans-/-/1433218/2197688/-/12klbh4/-/index.html
--
SIBOMANA Jean Bosco
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