In Kicukiro, a Kigali suburb, Ingabire’s imposing four bedroomed house is just a stone throw away from the main road. Once inside, the order and neatness around the place pulls your focus. The wooden ceiling keeps the place cool even on the hottest of days. The walls are decorated with beautifully framed photographs of her graduation and wedding.

I found Chantal Ingabire seated on one of the very comfortable sofas in her living room, using her laptop, with her 9-month-old son close by in a baby coat.

"Welcome to my house,” she said in a motherly tone. Looking at her beautiful place of aboard, it was hard to believe that the 27-year-old orphan was raised in a very poor family in Nyamagabe District.

Ingabire was raised in a family of eight children, three boys and five girls. "We were poor, but our parents tried to get us what they could. My father worked hard to keep us in school,” she said.

When she lost her mother in 1997 to cancer,her sister got married shortly after, at the age of 17 and moved out.

"I was only 10 and I had younger sisters to look out for. The youngest, Charlotte, was only six months old at the time,” she recalls.

Three months after her mother’s death, her father remarried, unfortunately a woman who mistreated them.

"The government had reduced school fees rates in public schools, especially those located in villages, to give the poor a chance to take their children to school.

"My father was able to pay for my education, but then his new wife started to discourage him. She said paying our school fees was a waste of money because we were girls and that we would grow up and get married like she did,” Ingabire recalled.

But Ingabire had adream. She wanted to become a lawyer, but she saw that dream start to fade away.

On many occasions, she went to school hungry. "I would go alone; my elder brothers had both dropped out of school and left home to live on the streets because of the harsh conditions.

"Sometimes my stepmother would stop me from going to school but I would escape and face severe punishment when I got back. Everyone knew our problems. The school once let me study for a whole year without paying school fees; but I lost a lot of weight due to hunger. I would leave home and spend a whole day at school with nothing to eat,” she said.

Tragedy struck again when her elder brother, Simon, died on the streets because of abusing drugs.

Her smile faded and her voice got weaker as she recalled the gloomy past; "I cried every day. I sometimes blamed God for taking our mother too soon. Once, I even contemplated suicide and went to the stream to drown myself. I met an old woman and when she saw me crying I think she sensed my distress and sat me down to talk.”

Ingabire told her the whole story. The old woman escorted her back home and said,"God has plans for you.”

This made her think about her mum and the last words she said to her. "I cried because I remembered what my mother told me shortly before she died. She said that because she wasn’t going to be around anymore, we would face many challenges in life. We looked at her for everything, now we’d have to focus on God. He would help us.”

According to Ingabire, she took her mum’s advice and waited and prayed for God’s assistance, but she got no answer.Things only got worse.

Their father sent her and her sisters away from home with claims that they were ruining his marriage. Some people in her village believed the step-mother had bewitched their father. He had completely changed.

"We all went to live with our elder sister who had gotten married. They were very poor and in most cases, we would eat once a day. But at least we were free from torture,” she said.

Hope for the future

In 2004, a World Vision staff member and coordinator of OVC/Mentorship Programme in Nyamagabe, Salomon Kanyeshamba heard of Ingabire’s situation.

Ingabire and her two young sisters Charlotte Dusabimana and Claudette Musabyimana were registered under the World Vision’s sponsorship programme.

"This restored hope for my future.We went back to school; they gave us school fees, uniforms, pens and books. We were also given a goat, washing soap and Vaseline,” Ingabire recalls.

The goat gave birth to many others. "I remember we sold three of them one time and bought a cow. Like the old woman told me the day I was going to commit suicide, God had plans for me, and the Lord took my mother but did not forsake us. It was then that I felt I could amount to anything in life. I was determined to succeed in everything I did,” added Ingabire.

After senior six, Ingabire got a job at her local church as a secretary. She also joined an association of orphans at the same church. A good samaritan who had visited the church heard her story and decided to pay for her university studies. She did a three year degree course in Development Studies at Kabale University in Uganda and graduated in 2012. Ingabire was an active student and even served as the minister of gender at the campus; there after, she was given a job at the university’s Kigali branch office in the marketing department.

"I saved part of my salary for further education and I recently graduated with a Master’s in Development Studies. But because of my humble background and the way I was helped to get to where I am now, my dream to be a lawyer changed and that’s why I took on development studies,” said Ingabire.

Helping others

The hard life Ingabire had to endure motivated her to empower and support others. "I have a four-year-old boy from a very poor family that I support with everything, including school fees, as a way of giving back. I’m also paying school fees for two of my elder sister’s daughters. They had dropped out of school due to my sister’s inability to pay for them,” she proudly says.

Dusabimana, Ingabire’s young sister talks about her with pride and excitement. "My sister will always be my inspiration, she endured the hard times in the past but that didn’t stop her from pursuing her dreams. She is my inspiration and role model.”

"My ambition now is to help people, especially children who are being denied some of their rights, for instance education,” said Ingabire.

Ingabire believes that no tragedy or misfortune should stop you from achieving your dreams. "My harsh past was an inspiration to work hard. I have been able to achieve a lot and I’m proud to say that I’m living the life of my dreams.The sky is the limit,” Ingabire said.editorial@newtimes.co.rw