Christine Mukarutwaza is not your typical affluent woman who decides to take care of the destitute because she has the money. No. At 63, Mukarutwaza has never had a job and just depends on subsistence farming for survival. But with her meagre resources, Mukarutwaza is currently taking care of 16 homeless children – in addition to her own nine. In Busanza, Kanombe, where she lives, she has been christened "mama w’abana" (mother of the children) because of her kind heart. She told her story to Maria Kaitesi.

It all started during the 1994 Genocide when a 5-year-old girl lost her way and ended up in my home. She probably lost her parents in the upheaval. Since then, various people have been bringing abandoned children to my home – and I gladly welcome them. 

But there are those I just find abandoned by the roadside – totally helpless – and take them in. I take them to school and share whatever I have with them. In fact, I raise them like my biological children. I don’t have enough resources but I always make sure that they don’t sleep on empty stomachs. 

At first my husband was worried about the ever-increasing number of children in our home. What worried him most was the lack of enough resources to feed or take them to school. However, his mindset gradually changed and now he is happy to be a father figure for all the children we are raising together besides our very own. 

Need of a helping hand 

I asked the local authorities in Kanombe to give me a helping hand but they said they didn’t have the means. However, in 2011, the mayor gave me Rwf150,000 and told me to invest it for purposes of sustainability. I planted pepper but failed to get market for them afterwards and I ended up making loses. So, in that same year, I and my husband decided to sell 12 of our plots of land. This is how we raised money that has enabled us to take care of our huge family. Right now I cultivate sorghum and beans among other foodstuffs to fend for my family. Recently I was also given a calf under the "Girinka Programme”, which should be very useful in the near future. 

The future 

Five of the children I have raised are now married. The oldest is in her late 20s. Three of my biological children are also married. The others are still here – still in school.

I am happy to help these children although sometimes I worry about their future. I only wish they could make it through school. My knees have become weak and digging has become a problem but I am not about to give up on helping society’s needy.

One orphan’s story 

Rafiki Giraneza, now in Primary Two, is one of the kids Mukarutwaza picked abandoned on the roadside. Giraneza was abandoned when he was just seven months old. Mukarutwaza picked Giraneza when the baby was so malnourished and skinny – the toddler’s bones almost visible and about to pop out.

When Mukarutwaza took the baby to a health centre, she was advised to just take him back home and wait for his death because, according to the nurses, Giraneza was teetering on the verge of death after spending several days without being fed on anything. 

However, Mukarutwaza didn’t lose hope. She kept on feeding and treating the baby the best way she could and Giraneza proved the nurses wrong: he survived. Now, Giraneza is as healthy as all other kids. 

Today, the little boy dreams of working with President Paul Kagame when he grows up – as a minister. 

And he will forever be grateful to his foster mother, who he says takes good care of him. Mukarutwaza, Giraneza says, treats him like her own child.