At the end of 2017, Mukarukundo, born in 2002 and resident of Gateke Village, Cyeya Cell, Rukomo Sector, Gicumbi District, worked as a house help.
After one year in his home, Mukarukundo suffered sexual assault from her boss, and to make matters worse, she was made pregnant. As soon as her boss found out that she was pregnant, he chased her out of his house but promised to keep supporting her while she was at her parents’ home.
On April 6, 2019, Mukarukundo gave birth to a baby girl. “After giving birth, I called him asking him to register the child in the civil status book and to help with the money that would help in raising the child and supporting us. He told me not to rush anything because he was to register the child whenever he would. He went on to say that even if I thought of taking him to court, I would never be able to afford it because I was poor and didn’t have means,” she recalls.
She continued to go through a desperate life, hopeless and distressed because she was not seeing any future for her child.
By June 2022, the village administration called for people with problems that needed legal aid support to come to the Cyeya cell to meet Haguruka for support.
“I came and addressed my case to Haguruka. As soon as Haguruka heard about my situation, they called the man and asked him for a reason he was neither registering the child nor providing support to raise the child, to which him replied; ‘that child is not mine, I don’t accept her.”
“Haguruka then told him that they were going to file a lawsuit and that a DNA test would be done to prove whether the child belongs to him or not. Two days after Haguruka received my case, he called and told me that he had finally accepted the child. I requested him to register the child in the civil status book but he again lied that he would register her later.”
His games went on but when he later realised that Haguruka was determined to file a lawsuit, he immediately called the organisation and said that he accepted the child and that he was going to get her registered in the civil status book.
“He finally got the child registered, and now the child is recorded under both of us. He also started providing her with school fees and daily feeding support for her. I thank Haguruka very much for having made me smile and happy again after three years. I didn’t have any hope for the future but now life has changed,” Mukarukundo says.