My name is Rehema Nyiramutuzo, I am a single woman of 30 years old and have a bachelor degree in development. I studied at Bishop Barham college located at Kabale University in Uganda. I was born in a small village in Kisoro, our family consisted of 6 children, 4 boys and 2 girls, and I was the 3rd in the row.
When we were very young our parents split up and then the grandparents where the persons who took over the care of us. Grandpa and grandma were farmers, we lived on what the farm brought up and some of the aunts helped with the work. When I was 9, I was in the fourth school year when my father died, and when I was 14 my mother died too.
As I grew up, my grandparents taught me how to take care of my younger siblings and the nephews who also lived with us. This taught me but also encouraged me to take responsibility, to work hard, but also to show loving care for the little ones. Our grandparents and aunts taught us the best they could with the knowledge they had.
One of my aunts was a nurse and I wanted to become that too. That became my childhood dream, to become a nurse! This childhood dream took a whole new turn when I finished my last high school year for the following reasons. During my vacation, after the end of the school year, I registered to help out as a volunteer. This was at a project named Potter’s Village that worked in my village and helped children in crisis situations. They help children between the ages from 0 to 6 years old and these children are divided into 3 categories. The 1st are the children whose mothers died at birth, the 2nd are the children whose mothers are mentally very unstable and the third group are the children who have been abandoned by their parents.
After my application for work, I was delighted to be invited for some interviews. They explained to me the different possibilities in which I could be employed, including caring for babies and everything that came with it. For me, the choice was obvious, because of the experience I had in taking care of small children at home. During my work at Potter’s Village, I took care of the little ones, bathing, feeding, playing and observing each stage in their young life. Watching them grow further enhanced my love for children.
When I went to college after the holidays, my goals had changed from being a nurse to social worker. It was the work in Potter’s Village that had taken me in to a completely different direction. I love working with children so much. The work at Koinonia is never boring. Children are so creative and the conversations we have with each other are so honest, they make a big smile appear on my face when I am with them.
