Artisan Spotlight: Angelique

Angelique’s life was forever affected by the 1994 Rwandan Genocide against Tutsis, when she lost both of her parents; it has taken a long time for her to recover from this. She continued having vivid dreams of some of the horrible events that she witnessed during the genocide.

Losing her parents made Angelique completely lose hope; she felt lost, alone, and helpless. She started going to the streets to work as a sex worker as a result of needing to provide for herself. She contracted HIV and she will now be on medication for the rest of her life.

On the street, in addition to being raped, she was insulted, beaten, and men left without paying her. She is now mother to multiple children with no support from their fathers. 

At one stage, she had to leave her children with her older sister without any notice, which contributed to her children growing up hating her, and damaging her relationship with her sister. 

All of these incidents damaged her emotionally, but with the help of DuHope staff and what she is learning at DuHope, she feels she is recovering more quickly than expected. 

“My biggest breakthrough is my children and my sister forgiving me. I feel like I belong and am loved. I no longer feel like an orphan who lost my parents, because my family is back again” said Angelique. 

This encouraged Angelique to work harder on her emotional well-being. She doesn’t hold any grudges or feel she has to get stuck in the past. She finds it easy to accept love, forgiveness, kindness, and generosity. She is able to reciprocate these things back to others in her life.