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My name is Florence Ntakobanjira. I am 41 years old. I am widowed because my husband was killed during the conflict of Hutu and Tutsi in Rwanda. I am a mother of seven.

I have fled war because I am half-Rwandan, so I went with my husband to his home village in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

I was born in Congo. My mother was Rwandan. If the Hutu come, they say I am Tutsi. If theTutsi come, they say I am Hutu and they both want to kill me. That is why I have no position. I don’t even have any relatives in Rwanda; no father, no brother.

The Tutsi came to invade eastern Congo. They arrived in Kassika and killed the King and many other people and this is when my husband was killed. While there, we got attacked again by Tutsi. They took me into the forest so that I would be their wife.

I was a sex slave in the forest for two weeks with many other women. One day, they went to attack another village and we escaped while they were away. But they came to find us. There were 77 women who were taken again by force. They locked us in a house and set fire to it. That is where I got the scar on my head.

I was saved by a miracle. Seventy women were burnt alive in the house. We were on the ground floor and other people were above us and so the fire didn’t reach seven of us who were on the ground floor. From there I went to the forest and spent four months without any treatment. I couldn’t eat either. It is a miracle that I am still alive. I don’t know how I am alive today.

Photo: Fjona Hill Interview: Nicola York

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I spent all this time without seeing my children. When we saw a village, the people did not welcome us. They said that ‘as you escaped from those Tutsi, they will attack us, so you have to go’.

They chased us away, until we arrived here in Bukavu. All this period I didn’t know where my children were. I spent time looking for my children and so far I still don’t know where one of my children is. I don’t know whether he is dead or alive. I walked for more than 25km to find that child. He escaped saying he couldn’t live such a hard life and he left, he went.

I got separated from my children in 2000 and I only saw them again in 2003. But we couldn’t live together because I didn’t have anything to give them. They have been fed by other people. People would take one and give them food and that is how they were living, in different families. It is only after 2005 that I was able to have all the children stay with me.

My husband’s relatives said that I brought a curse on their family. They said it was because of me that my husband was killed so I am a misfortune to the family of my husband. I was living in part of Bukavu with my husband’s brother but he said he had to kill me because the death of his brother was due to me. I decided to leave because otherwise he would kill me.

Now I am living here in Panzi. But I have no dwelling. I no longer have a house even in the home village of my husband. I have no place I can call home. I was expelled from everywhere. That is why now I am like a street woman.

Photo: Fjona Hill Interview: Nicola York

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Photo: Florence is second from the left.

I’m lucky to have joined Women for Women International because I was taught how to live in society, how to live with other people.

I was taught the importance of social networks. I was taught that despite being a widow, I still have life in front of me. I didn’t know that with little money, anyone can start income generation, but this is what I am doing today. I am learning to cook. I know that with this job skill I will do something for my children and myself.

Photo: Fjona Hill Interview: Nicola York

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Every time I look in the mirror and see the scar on my head, I think about my late husband and I cry sometimes.

I plan, I have dreams of getting a compound for myself. I am afraid for my children because if I die today they have no dwelling, how are they going to survive? It makes me suffer a lot when I think about my children and about what they will become in the future.

But I think that if I get some capital, it will help me, and in the future I can buy a plot of land where we will have a small house to live in.

You can help a woman like Florence move from poverty to self-sufficiency, overcome the traumas of war and rebuild her life and that of her family. Sponsor a woman today.

Photo: Fjona Hill Interview: Nicola York