I am Immaculate Mukandamagye and I am 26 years old. I live in Nyakwibereka Village in Nyanza District, in the Southern Province of Rwanda.

I’m a daughter of the late Desire Muganga and Marie Claire Mukagatare; they both died during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

Three of us survived the killings in our family of twelve children. I am the eldest amongst my siblings. I started taking care of my two sisters at the age of nine years after the death of my parents.

We stay in an unfinished five-bed roomed house which belonged to our parents. Managing a child headed household is one of the most challenging things in life.

I stay with my 21-year-old sister while my other sister went to Kigali City in search for a better life.

Since I dropped out of school during my second year of secondary school education, due to financial constraints, I couldn’t support my sister either.

When I was 25 years, I thought I had found a companion, but when I gave birth, he left us claiming that he cannot look after us.

I try to work hard by using my neighbors‘s garden to grow beans and sweet potatoes which we eat and if there is any surplus, I sell it in the market for money.

My daughter is a year and my dream is to work hard and make sure her future is brighter than mine. Although it will require my whole strength to make it up to her, I am determined to fulfill this dream.

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