On a relatively cool day, Deo Bizumuremyi stands with a group of fellow students in the rural Kansi Sector of Gisagara District, Southern Province.

Bizumuremyi stands out as the oldest guy among the group of about five students. At 19 years, he is not a student like others–while most of his age mates have already finished secondary school studies and perhaps are now in university, he is still in Senior Two at Groupe Scolaire Kansi.But his dreams are big and the teenage boy is confident he will realise them.

Troubled childhood

Bizumuremyi was born in Gisagara. As he grew up, he didn’t get a chance to be raised by his biological parents and until today, doesn’t know what happened to both his parents, whether he might have been abandoned or if they both passed away.

His troubles started in 2011 when the young boy, who was then in his first year, was forced to drop out of school because, he argues, his foster family had ‘refused’ to continue paying his school fees.

Frustrated, the teenager decided to leave the family and try his luck elsewhere. In the process, he met a man who promised to offer him a job in Kigali and he volunteered to go, hoping that the little money he would be paid as a houseboy would one day help him go back to school.

Unfortunately, when they reached Nyabugogo bus terminal, Bizumuremyi lost track of his employer-to-be."It was my first time to step in Kigali and I got lost within the massive crowd,” he said

"I think he had no malicious intentions to drop me”.

Left to himself in an unknown city, with no person to contact and no money to go back to his village, Bizumuremyi was then condemned to a street life.

"I started spending nights outside shops or in cinemas,” Bizumuremyi says.

He recalls one specific night when he slept under a bridge in a freezing night cold-something he says he will never forget.

"Life on street wasn’t easy but I resigned to fate. I knew something bad could happen to me but I had no choice,” he says.

In order to survive, Bizumuremyi resorted to helping shoppers carry their bags thus earning a few coins."But because I didn’t belong to any cooperative, I was constantly threatened by organised casual labourers who considered me an encroacher,” Bizumuremyi says.

"But I kept doing it to earn a living because I didn’t want to steal or commit any crime to survive”.

Back to school

Luckily, despite the challenging life he had been thrown into, he survived the temptations to engage in drug abuse, something he says is common among street children.

"I never abused drugs; not even a single day,” the youth says, noting that he even then he couldn’t afford to buy them when he rarely had enough money to buy food.

Bizumuremyi would spend about a year on the streets before Police arrested him and transferred him to Iwawa Rehabilitation and Skills Development Centre.

He spent 12 months at the Lake Kivu Island centre being rehabilitated. He also benefitted from a specialised skills-development programme, obtaining a certificate in hair-dressing.

After his graduation, he returned to the community as a ‘reformed boy’ and started doing odd jobs in local hairdressing shops-earning little money to survive. He also joined a local cooperative that brings together about 30 young individuals working to transform their lives.

"My stay at Iwawa taught me the importance of society and how to live harmoniously with others,” he says.

"So when I came back, I invested my efforts in cultivating better relationships with others”.

The friendships Bizumuremyi cultivated would later allow him to go back to school. Indeed, it is one of the men that Bizumuremyi met and discussed his life who helped him go back to school to pursue his dreams.

"He is a true hero to me,” he says of Jean d’Amour Mutarambirwa, the 22-year-old man who helped him go back to school by mobilising a number of members of the local community for support.

Serving the nation

Early this year, Bizumuremyi was all smiles as he walked again back to school, something he says made him "very excited” and "extremely proud.”

"Ever since I was a child, I liked school and wanted to be someone important in the community,” he says. "But life couldn’t give me a chance to pursue my dreams”.

Bizumuremyi says the time he spent out of school, and mostly on the streets, has taught him many lessons and vows to "never misuse the chance I have been given of going back to school.”

"This is one step forward toward what I always wanted to be: someone important in the community,” he says.

He says he wants to study beyond university and use the skills to help others in the future.

"After my studies I want to enrol into the army and become an officer,” Bizumuremyi says.

"I believe that way I will be able to contribute toward building a better country as well as be in a position to serve its people.”