Godiva Nyiramana holds her four year old baby, wrapped in linen that is lacking in hygiene and warmth.

Nzamuhabwanayo the four-year old baby can neither walk, sit nor talk. He is stunted, exuding all symptoms of an undernourished child.

A resident of Mudende in Nyamiyaga Cell of Shingiro Sector, Musanze District of the Northern Province, Nyiramana, 36, and a mother of four has never gone to school. "I did not get that chance. My parents were too poor to afford my education. So I just stayed at home all the time working on the gardens and when I turned 24, I got married,” says Godiva whom we find at the Shingiro Sector Hospital, where she had brought her other two year old boy for some treatment.

We ask her what she does for a living, whereof she says that her survival depends on tilling other people’s land. "It is the only job I have known and done since childhood. On a day I can get RwF500, which I have to make sure that I use sparingly to meet the needs of the day, or two, because at times I can spend two days without getting that odd job,” she says as she puts her 4 year old baby to the back as the other two year old baby also pulls the hems of her dress.

How then does Nyiramana take care of her four children when they fall sick! "God’s mercy”, she says tartly. "I do not have the Mutuelle de Sante, (a communal medical Insurance cover) neither does any of the kids. I do not live with the father of these children, so I shoulder every bit of expense and burden,” says Godiva with a tinge of hopelessness dragging through her eyes and expressions.

And it looks like even Nyiramana’s children are destined to have no education at all, like mother and the mother before her. "My first born Muragize Uwiteka Francois, 12, does not go to school because I cannot afford buying him the school requirements.”

When the kids are sick, Nyiramana just walks to the Shingiro Hospital, sits there and if the medical personnel have mercy, they attend to her. She has built her personal semi-permanent house, on her mothers land who is ageing and lives with her on the same compound. The plot is so small, but at least she can grow some Irish potatoes, though not enough for the survival of the whole family.

"I missed school, and so I live this life of toiling and wanting all the time. My children are most likely to miss school too, and most likely to live a replica of my own life. It pains me that much,” she concludes as the sobbing child continues to pull her dress, communicating her hunger and discomfort.

Ends