{"id":217761,"date":"2024-04-08T12:35:24","date_gmt":"2024-04-08T17:35:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/\/?p=217761"},"modified":"2024-05-14T14:19:08","modified_gmt":"2024-05-14T19:19:08","slug":"pascaline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/\/pascaline\/","title":{"rendered":"Against All Odds: Pascaline and her family of ten."},"content":{"rendered":"
Extreme poverty befell Pascaline and her family four years ago.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It happened in a matter of days following the death of Pascaline’s mother. The family returned to their matriarch’s home village in rural Rwanda for the burial. There, Pascaline’s father swiftly abandoned his six children, leaving them with their eighty-year-old maternal grandmother, who was already struggling to provide for three of Pascaline’s cousins.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Pascaline’s grandmother had suffered an arm injury several years earlier. Without access to proper healthcare, she’d lost the function of her right arm. Able-bodied Pascaline, then fourteen, was the eldest of the nine children, ages three months to ten years old. And so, almost overnight, Pascaline became responsible for a household of ten.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Pascaline spent days collecting leftover charcoal to sell and weeding the fields. But the meager earnings\u2014scraps of sweet potatoes, cassava, and corn\u2014from odd jobs weren’t enough to feed the family. Hunger haunted their household. Nights were endless, filled with crying infants desperate for milk Pascaline couldn’t afford. On occasion, mothers in the village would have pity on Pascaline’s begging, sharing milk and porridge. But when that option failed, Pascaline fed the babies solid food.<\/span><\/p>\n “We never had vegetables or legumes,” Pascaline recalled. “I was praying for God to send help. I felt abandoned and began to believe I was alone.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Unable to afford education, Pascaline and her siblings languished in perpetual need. If a family member fell ill, Pascaline could do nothing. No one had birth certificates, disqualifying them from need-based programs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Four years passed in this state of hopelessness and despair, each more bleak than the next. Finally, in January 2023, Pascaline heard about Zoe Empowers and attended the information event. She wept to Albertine, a program facilitator in Rwanda, as she recalled her strenuous battle to keep her family alive.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Pascaline was accepted into the empowerment program, and at the first group meeting, she created a Dream Chart to outline her vision and goals for the program. Placed prominently at the top, Pascaline drew a picture of her motivation: children crying out of hunger.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n More than anything, Pascaline dreamed of becoming food secure. So, when she didn’t attend the second meeting, her group was confused and concerned. They tracked Pascaline down and learned she hadn’t found work that day and could not feed her family. She’d skipped the Zoe meeting to beg for food.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Pascaline’s peers, who were also vulnerable and hungry, deemed Pascaline’s situation an emergency. They banded together, promising to help Pascaline find food for a few days to allow her to keep coming to the meetings. Their kindness and generosity moved Pascaline to tears. Never before had anyone come to her home and listened to her struggles.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n