A letter from Christi Boyd serving in Congo
Fall 2014 - Child Migrants; Rwanda
Claudine (12) had it all planned out with three neighborhood friends in the village of Mbati, Rwanda. The threesome had family in the capital city, Kigali, who would help Claudine find work there. On market day that week she was going to ask her parents for money to go get her hair done, but use it to pay for transportation instead. Someone had already made the arrangements for the four youngsters to travel and had shown them where to go. Once in the big city, however, the thrill soon waned. Life as a housemaid at that young age turned out to be harsh. Changing employers didn't help much, and the $14 Claudine had earned after five months of work represented only eight weeks' worth of the promised salary. Still, it wasn't so much the maltreatment and verbal abuse that made her ache to go back home as it was seeing the family's children off to school after she had prepared their breakfast and school lunches. "I looked at my life and realized it was miserable,” she said. “Once I had made up my mind, I got so excited! I couldn't wait for the night to be over and the morning to come so I could return home and start school again myself. Now that I am back, nothing can stop me from going to class. Because I have seen that quitting to look for work is like death."
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Claudine and her mother.
Claudine is one of five child migrants in Mbati Parish who shared with us their ordeal. Last year local child trafficking was raised as a concern by the Women's Desk of the Presbyterian Church in Rwanda (EPR), so they asked its Coordinator, Rev. Rose Marie Ibyishaka, for opportunities to learn more about this phenomenon during my forthcoming visit to Rwanda. This is how I first sat down with 12 women pastors of the EPR who told me of rural families whose children had gone missing and of urban folks requesting young, cheap maids. During that gathering Rev. Beatha of the Mbati Parish vividly relayed experiences from her community, and upon my request she arranged for conversations with a couple of these families. Unsure whether there would be any interest among her parishioners in talking about this situation, we were pleasantly surprised to see not just two but five sets of parents waiting for us with their youngsters. Elder Muheto told us that even more had wanted to come and share!
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Elisé
Like other boys in Mbati, Elisé (14) enjoyed staying at a nearby military camp. His mother, a widow and the sole caretaker of many children, had difficulties in making ends meet. She could give him only fufu, a traditionally prepared staple food, with a little tomato sauce to eat. The soldiers, on the other hand, would feed Elisé plenty if he helped them fetch water and do other chores. When the military camp needed to move on, he and the other boys wanted to leave with them, much to the dismay of parents in the community. They complained to the local authorities, who in turn ordered the children's return. But Elisé didn't feel like going back to his home situation. After spending a year in Kigali he found his way to the EPR Bubazi Parish, where the pastor gave him work to do around the church. Elisé expressed his appreciation for the social skills the pastor taught him and for convincing him to go back to school. He is living again with his mother and siblings and is enrolled in a vocational training program in Mbati Parish.
Claudine, Elisé and the other three teens are only a sample of the Mbati youth, and their unsettling stories span a period of less than two years. Told in their native tongue, details may have gotten lost in translation, but that child migration is all too common a phenomenon may be clear. Rose Marie points out that its impact on the future of children, families, the Church and Rwandan society as a whole is not sufficiently understood. The problem needs to be addressed at two levels, she says—educational by raising awareness about the reality and dangers of child migration, and economical by increasing financial means to improve living standards. "Time has come for the EPR Women and the Family Desk to speak up and start doing something about it. Maybe we can think about a family campaign on child trafficking," she says.
Beatha explains that during the summer holidays last year the Mbati Parish held a one-day camp for children ages from 8 to 18 years. The topic was violence inside the family and outside, such as abuses suffered when looking for work. Grouped together by age, the children there shared with peers about their problems. "We realized that we truly have that problem in our church, in our parish. The difficulty of unmet family needs causes violence, which makes a child leave the family. That violence is rooted in the family's poverty. When the child abandons the family he or she will once again experience violence. Two children told us about that, but confidentially."
In the final round of our conversation Claudine, Elisé, Viani, Chantal and Claude all agreed to share openly about their experiences in future camps to prevent others from going through the same ordeal. As for the parents, Elder Muheto adds that the congregation's weekly prayer cells provide a platform for them to express their concerns and report any disappearances.
In Bubazi village, where the community faces much of the same problem, the EPR Women's Desk is hoping to reverse this trend. With a Thank Offering grant from PC(USA) Presbyterian Women, a once thriving fruit-processing cooperative that had been started several decades ago by the EPR's widows association but in the aftermath of the genocide had fallen in disrepair is being revived. After getting the plant up and running again, it will help increase income for fruit farmers in the community and provide the congregation's women and youth much needed job opportunities bottling pineapple and passion fruit. By the Grace of God, the thus reduced poverty levels and increased living standards will help families around Bubazi to stay together and ensure the schooling and other needs of their children.
Jeff and I appreciate your various expressions of support. Please let us know how we can help your congregation become better informed about or connected with Presbyterian World Mission and its ministries with our global partners. We join our colleagues of the Presbyterian Mission Agency in thanking you for any and all financial gifts that help enable our mission service.
In Christ's service,
Christi, also for Jeff
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As a 13-year-old Chantal regularly went over to her neighbors to use their toiletries and ask for clothes and shoes, which she lacked at home. That is why her aunt took her to Ruhango to work for a better-off family member. They had Chantal do all the household chores: preparing meals, fetching water, gathering fire wood, and taking care of the children—all without pay. Chantal didn't even receive the toiletries and clothes they had promised her when they said they would treat her as their own daughter. When the parents started looking for their daughter two months later, her aunt contacted the family and convinced Chantal to overcome her fears of punishment and go back home. Her parents' relief, however, was short-lived. For a month now their other daughter is missing. The police started an inquiry and found that she had migrated from Kigali to Mutara near the Ugandan border. The authorities promised to bring her back, but the family is still waiting for her return. |
Fed up with his parents' inability to buy him notebooks and other school supplies, Claude (15) decided to leave home last year when someone gave him prospects for work. After nine weeks of watching cows, paid only half of the promised $10 monthly wage while being scolded for unsatisfactory job performance, he agreed to reunite with his parents, who had started looking for him. The lack of supplies remains a struggle, says Claude, but he is glad to be back at school.
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Viani was 16 years old when he chose to live with his grandfather. Once there, a neighbor offered to take him to Kigali, because he knew of a road construction company that needed a guard. At night, after coming back from their work, the road workers were using drugs. He says: “They would tell me, 'Eh, little one, do you know how to take drugs? You should learn it! You're already part of the company,' but I told them I didn't want to use drugs." In the meantime his mother had filed a complaint with the local administrator and after two weeks of work the company allowed him to go. They gave him $1.40 for the bus fare and let him keep the flip-flops they had bought for him to avoid being fined by the police. “In Rwanda it is not allowed to walk barefooted,” Rev. Rose explains.
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The 2014 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 138
The 2015 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 146, 147
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