Samuel's Story

After having lived in Ndejje for almost nine months now, we have gotten to know many families on a personal level and have learned their stories over time. Since the community in which we work is made of largely of refugee families, many of their stories are touching, inspiring, rather unbelievable. I've been impressed time and again of the resiliency of the kids with whom we work, but today I am going to write about a young man who is the older brother of four kids who attend Hope School and with whom we share a close relationship.

Samuel is twenty-one years old and is the oldest sibling of five. His four younger siblings are Jaelle, Asheal, Jeledi, and Abigail, whose ages ranges from about 6-13 years old. The family hails from Burundi, and they have been living in Uganda for over a year now, after having spent time in Tanzania and Rwanda. When Samuel was sixteen years old, his mother was slaughtered in front of him and his four siblings with a machete. His father was thrown in prison, whether it was before or after his mother's murder we are not sure of. Both his mother's death and his father's prison sentence were a result of racial tensions in Burundi that had spilled over from the conflict in Rwanda. Since these events took place, Samuel has been the sole guardian of his siblings.

At the ripe young age of sixteen, Samuel accepted the responsibility of caring for his family, and quickly sought to get them out of Burundi, seeking refugee status in other countries. He succeeded in doing so, and his family has been on the move ever since, accepting asylum wherever it has been offered. After having given up any sort of normal teenage life, Samuel has been the only breadwinner for himself and his siblings. He has managed to provide them with a small one bedroom house which he pays rent for each month and daily necessities such as food, which is more than many other two-parent households are able to provide for their own children, regardless of whether or not they are refugees. As of right now, Samuel holds a night-shift at a local hotel, diligently showing up for work every evening at ten and working until about six or seven the next morning. He then comes home and sleeps for a while, before waking up to help with chores around the house and to spend time with his younger siblings.

The reason that I wanted to write about Samuel is because I am so impressed by his maturity at such a young age. So many people here ask for handouts from us all the time. Samuel has never asked us for anything, despite probably needing it the most. He is an incredible, incredible person who doesn't appear to begrudge his lot in life, and continues to work hard for a better future for his siblings. And not only does he put food on the table and provide a roof for his family's heads, but he also focuses on spending quality time with his younger siblings and takes an interest in what is happening in their lives.

He is currently working on finding a way to move his family to Australia, Canada, the U.S., or the U.K. through a refugee relocation program. While he has run into roadblocks thus far, he remains undeterred and is so committed to bettering his families opportunities. It seems as though the kids might actually have a better chance at being relocated or even adopted if he is not in the picture, so he is now willing to remove himself from the equation if it means that his siblings get to leave Africa. I have never met anyone who demonstrates that level of selflessness.

The other interns and myself are going to try and help Samuel with the relocation process through the Refugee Law Project and possibly UNHCR. Samuel has raised some incredible kids who are bright, polite, and happy children, despite everything they have witnessed and been through. He may well be the most amazing person I have encountered in Uganda, and I hope that some of you who read about him are as inspired as I am by his story.