Providing health care to 1000s in Bujumbura slum

My husband was hospitalized and we were given an invoice for the amount of 300 000BIF. This amount was very heavy for us, we were not able to pay it and hospital administration imprisoned my husband. The only solution I had was to apply for credit from the FWA’s saving group. They gave me a loan, and I was able to pay the bill with the agreement that my husband will help me pay this debt.

After that, my husband returned to his work but he did not pay this credit. I begged him but he refused. One day I came home and found the house empty; my husband left us with everything which has a value in our house and until now, 5 months ago I don't know where he is.

So I fell into depression: I used to cry every moment, I didn't know where to go. When I thought about this credit, I felt very bad. I wanted death. He left me with our three children “how can I start from zero, whereas I only have a capital of 50,000BIF”.

I thank FWA; this center has a really meaning on empowering and healing women.  It’s like women’s refuge; my saving group understood my problem and gave me another deadline to pay this debt.  This training helped me calm down I understood that I am not alone in this fight about gender based violence.

• FWA_JUNE_2022_NARRATIVE_REPORT.doc (DOC)

“I was raped at 13 by a boy that I considered as a brother; I was doing some cleaning work in his room as usual and he raped me and I immediately got pregnant. This man gave me drugs to have an abortion and I refused.

When my elder sisters found that I was pregnant, they called for justice and this man was imprisoned. Then his sister gave the money to the judges and He got out of jail. This man's sister convinced me to say that I love this man in order to live together. She lied to me that she is going to take me to Europe and I accepted.

Because of this decision my family hated me, beat me, cursed me and refused me to go near their house.

Arrived in the house of this man, I suffered all forms of violence; he beat me, he raped me, he brought other women into our room, sometimes he threw the food I had prepared on the road in front of our neighbors.

I hated so much that man that I couldn't be able to look it in his face; even to have sex I begged him to use the position where I couldn't see him in his face.

I began a small potato business which helped me to live alone with my two children at the age of 15. I became an independent and beautiful woman. The man envied me and wanted to start life together again. When he was presenting his proposal to me I took a stone and I threw him in his face and the blood flowed; I said to myself; a man who ruined my youth, for me deserves to be killed. I will never forgive him. Thank you for this workshop where I got an opportunity to cry”

• fwa_may_2022_NARRATIVE_REPORT.doc (DOC)