How I Knew Robert Ndicunguye

In March 2017, there is this black man who came to Palace, a group house that was located at Kwa Nayinzira. The man was carrying a bag and a phone in his hands. He said that he was coming to visit Daniel and use his computer. He also said that he was coming to see few other people at Palace. I don’t recall the name of the man because it has been a while since the man visited Palace. That man was wearing a white Polo shirt and blue jeans. Also, he wore these black, leather sandals which made some noise as the man took steps. He looked happy as he had found what he was looking for, Daniel, his friend as well as the computer to use. That man had a perfect size and was relatively tall.

After encountering that man, I had to interact friendly with him as I was the Assistant Resident Advisor. Sitting on his bed, Daniel was looking at the pictures in the gallery of the man’s phone and found this disabled child, a boy walking with a wooden clutch and carrying a jerry can on his head. In reality, this boy had lost his right leg. After seeing that vulnerable boy, we started to ask the man anything he knew about the boy. Here is what the man said, “This boy is called Robert. He is disabled just like you can see from the picture. He has both parents, his mom, and dad. There is this single problem that I find the boy has. After school, he always goes to fetch water using a 10-liter jerry can. One time I talked to the man and said that it is his mom who always instructs him to go and fetch water after school. I think this is a big problem because this young, disabled boy has one leg. So, walking on the clutch to fetch water [every day] in a 400-meters away is problematic.” After hearing what the man said, we wept. Daniel shed tears in his eyes and I calmed him. When the man was done with the first question, I asked the second: Do you know how Robert lost his right leg? “I don’t know how Robert lost his right leg,” the man replied. Do you know what Robert’s parents do for a living?” I asked again. I don’t know what his mom does, but sometimes I meet his dad going to dig gardens” replied the man.

After hearing all about Robert and his family, I felt sorry for Robert and wanted to visit him. I could not imagine how a disabled young boy could go to fetch water every day after school. I could just imagine how tiresome it is for someone to fetch water while walking by the clutch. That time, I started to feel like visiting Robert’s family someday. So, I started doing the plan on how I will do that. Firstly, I asked the man the location of the family and how much it costs to reach there. The man told me that the family resides in Musave, Gasabo district, Kigali and that it costs nearly 1,000 Rwf (1.2 USD) to reach there. From that time, I felt as if I had reached the Robert family’s residence. With Daniel, we planned to visit the family in the weekend, specifically on Saturday, that was just approaching. The cost did not matter so much to us due to the tremendous generosity that we had for Robert that time. The day that followed, we looked for other people to go with. Unfortunately, no one else was able to go because most of the people we approached had no transport fees. We were targeting Flavien, Emery, and Pacifique. All these were the delegates from the people we lived together at Palace. Later on, during the same day, I called Robert’s dad. The other man I talked about above had given me the phone’s number of Robert’s dad. Then, I called Robert’s dad to check his availability so that Daniel and I would pay them a short visit someday. Robert’s dad told me that they are usually available in the weekend because they go to dig the gardens during the working days. When I asked if I can pay them a short visit, Robert’s dad gave me a warm welcome. However, I had explained who I am and the reason I wanted to visit the family. When the Saturday came, Daniel and I were ready to go to Musave. When we arrived there, the family welcomed us and we knew more about Robert. In our return home, we discussed how we can start helping Robert. Because we knew that Robert went to school, it became easy for us to determine what we can help him get. This is how the idea of helping Robert started. Fortunately, when we told our colleagues at Palace the news about Robert, they all felt like helping him. Later on, the news about Robert spread all over Kepler, and more people were willing to help the disabled boy. 

Photo by Daniel: Robert Ndicunguye (left) and Jean Paul Knight (right). The picture was taken when I met Robert for the first time.