At just 9 years old, Tumaini lost everything he knew. The war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) tore his world apart, claiming the lives of his parents, relatives and destroying their home, leaving him and his elder brother alone in a country ailing from political instability.
The war-torn country made Tumaini and his brother flee for safety
The 2 boys walked in tow to a nearby village, where an old man, moved by their plight, took them in. But barely a year later, fate struck another cruel blow when the kind man passed away. His children, harbouring resentment, threw Tumaini and his brother back in the streets.
Homeless for the second time, Tumaini and his brother wandered, desperate for refuge and a sense of belonging. A glimmer of hope emerged when another elderly man found them and listened to their story. Understanding their desire to find a haven, he helped them with money to facilitate their journey toward a fresh start in a foreign country.
The 2 brothers made their way to a border town in western Kenya and eventually settled in Kakuma Refugee Camp in northwestern Kenya.
Kakuma became their sanctuary. Tumaini embraced the fresh start, adjusting to life in a modest iron-sheet shelter. For the first time in years, he felt safe and at peace. However, his brother remained consumed with the rage against those responsible for their parents’ deaths.
At first, Tumaini dismissed his elder brother's threats of returning to the DRC to avenge their parents. One day he went to fetch water and returned to find strangers occupying their small shelter they had called home for only two months.
’This is my house’, Tumaini yelled. ’Why are you moving in?’
One of the strangers responded, ’This is our new home, your brother sold it to us’.
’Where is my brother?’ Tumaini asked in tears.
No one had an answer. Tumaini believes his brother sold their shelter and returned to DRC.
Tumaini’s world collapsed again. Desolate and speechless, he ended up on the streets of Kakuma town.
The Danish Refugee Council offered Tumaini a second home
One night, heavy rain drove him to seek shelter. He desperately knocked from door to door in the camp. Luckily, an elderly couple answered — strangers who, through a simple act of kindness, changed the course of his life. They gave him shelter for the night and, the next day, took him to the office of the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), an EU-funded humanitarian partner.
Through DRC’s support, Tumaini, true to his name which means ’Hope‘ in English — was connected to loving foster parents, Debat Amos Bukenge and his wife, Stella Bukenge.
The young couple, both Congolese refugees, had struggled for years to have a child of their own. They did not hesitate when DRC offered them the chance to become foster parents. In 2021, 3 months after meeting Tumaini, Debat and Stella embraced him as their own.
DRC supported Tumaini’s return to school. They provided him with books and a uniform.
’I work very hard in school’, Tumaini said ’I don’t want to waste this opportunity. In my last exams, I was the third out of seventy students. I don’t want to disappoint my parents’.
’Tumaini was completely withdrawn when he first joined us’, his foster father recalls. ’For nearly a year, he didn’t utter a word, haunted by his brother’s disappearance’.
But with ongoing psychosocial support by the Danish Refugee Council, Tumaini slowly began to heal and eventually found his voice. His foster parents also received a training in nurturing care, helping the family of 3 to live together peacefully.
’I am grateful to feel parental love again’, Tumaini said.’I never thought I would have a family after losing my own. But here in Kakuma, I have found a home.”
Debat, who works as a security officer at an International NGO, echoed his son’s sentiments.
’Kakuma didn’t just give us safety; it gave us a family that we longed for’, he said. ’We struggled for years with the pain of childlessness. Tumaini’s arrival was an answered prayer’.
Outside school, Tumaini also helps run the family’s small shop and actively participates in the activities of their small Christian community, including playing the guitar and singing in church.
