Feresita is 44 years old. She is a Hutu, and today she cares for six of her children in Rugendabari.

This is her story:

During the war, I had nine children. I had two children who fell sick and while I was escaping to Congo these two children died. One was 5 years old and the other was 2 years old.

At the beginning I had to hide at the sector office because rouge people wanted to throw me in the river because they thought I was a Tutsi because I was so tall.

I escaped and hid on the roof of my house, but one day I fell from the roof and broke my right leg. I walked to Kabgyi hospital with my husband, but even there the soldiers where killing people. It was very hard. My husband sold any metal we had at the house so we would have money for the hospital, but it was still difficult. I had to leave my children with other family members when we went to the hospital.

I came back from the hospital and my leg was not fixed. My family needed to escape to Congo. While we were escaping, my child fell out of a tree and broke his arm. While we were marching to Congo, we would use sticks to dig sweet potatoes from other peoples’ fields. We did not cook the potatoes. We just ate them raw. We had nothing else to eat.

While trying to escape in April, my two sick children died on the road to Congo. I could not bury them. I did not continue to Congo after this. I took my living children and returned to Rugendabari to try and find a home.

In Rugendabari, my mother and two sisters burned to death when a RPF helicopter shot at the house by accident and the house caught fire. Today the house is the same. We have no money to fix the house, so it looks like it did during the war.

During this time we would hide in the valleys and forests. We traveled with mats for warmth.

After the war, I returned to Kabgyi to fix my leg. They had to cut my leg and they put metal in my leg. I had to sell my field to pay for this. Because of my leg, I can not work in the field.

I joined Zamuka Cooperative one year ago because I had no work because of my leg. I use the money from selling baskets to buy one field, which I have today. 

Feresita was the first to celebrate her first basket sale to Rising. She clapped and danced and was so grateful. She hopes to buy more land so she will be able to leave land for her remaining children.

As of May 2009, Rising has helped Feresita make $456 through her baskets.