When I was young, I used to think that presidents and other very rich people live in paradize; a World where problems are nonexistent and where they can simply get what they want.
How wrong was I! As I grew up, I came to learn that every single person on this planet is f**ghting his/her own battles, and that problems are the common denominator of life, only that they differ, and they differ very much.
You might not worry about food to eat, but you will definitely worry when you are sick. You might buy a private jet and have no worries of flying thousands of kilometres within a few hours, but you will still worry about its maintenance, pilots and other stuff.
Watch the video below:
However, those worries are a drop in the ocean compared to what Maombi Bacunjuze, known as Vero, is worried about. She is just 14 years old, but raising her three young siblings. They are Mape who is 12, Mazira who is nine and Akili who is five and the youngest boy.
Her older brother, Chubaka, who should probably be taking care of them, had escaped, or rather vanished. His father chased his young sisters and brother away, then they were welcomed by their very poor uncle who had nothing to give them other than a shelter.
Once, when they passed by their father’s home, Chubaka, who was still there, could not hold his frustration and deep sorrow, and he brought them something to eat, after almost two days without eating.
His stepmother, whom his father has married and thus chased his own children away, saw Chubaka slipping in with food to the young angels. He reported him to his father, who came over and beat him so mercilessly that the young man almost d**ed.
He was rushed to the hospital and doctors operated him as he spent weeks in the hospital recovering. Finally, against all odds, he came back alive. But he was scared, and he never returned to his father’s house but to his uncle’s, where he lived miserably with his younger siblings.
It was so tough and he couldn’t manage to feed them. One day, he said he was going to look for food and he never came back ever since, and sadly, no one knows what happened to him. Whether he d**ed or he is still alive, nobody knows.
So that’s when everything turned upside down to these young children, and now they are absorbing the wrath of the World alone.
A turning point
It all started with the sudden death of their mother. Back in 2020, this family had a tough but manageable life, just like many other families in Eatern Republic of Congo, where they were based.
Her father then married another woman, but this step mother did not like the kids of this man. She pleaded to the man to chase them, and he shamelessly did it.
After the escape of their brother, the hungry children were left to fend for themselves. One Samaritan woman came to know about their life and donated 9$ to Vero to start a small business selling charcoal.
She would always wake up in the morning and go to the market to buy charcoal and then return back to sell them to a street corner near where they lived.
The woman she always bought charcoal from then once asked her what she used the charcoal, and the young Vero explained to her. The woman was overwhelmed to know the life this young girl was living in.
She then committed to allow her to sell her charcoal without capital.
“I have been seeing these children for a while. Sometime ago, she came here to buy charcoal. When she came back, she had no money left after she had used it to buy medicines for her siblings. I took a decision to just give her the charcoal to go and sell and give me the capital while she keeps the profit. It’s not much but that’s all I can do for her,”
The young children who are tragically fending for themselves still have dreams to return back to school. Vero is also worried that in the near future, she might not be able to feed her young siblings, and the fact that simply a 14 years old girl is having those thoughts is truly sad.
She has vowed to delay her marriage until her younger siblings can be mature enough to live by themselves.
It’s up to you and me to do our best to save the lives of these children. They are just children, afterall.
