When Aloys Baziga was 11 years old, he lost his family during the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi in 1994. His sister is one year elder was the only person that survived with him. In December of the same year, Aloys and his sister joined the emergency response established by SOS Children’s Villages Rwanda at Ngarama in the Northern Province of Rwanda. The location which was set-up to rescue vulnerable children, later on, became SOS Children’s Villages Byumba where he grew up.
Baziga says that it was like a miracle for him because he never thought that he would find another person who would take care of him after his parents were killed. He says, “We were hiding for three months after we were rescued and later on joined the emergency response at Ngarama,” He says “I remember us arriving around 3:00pm and our first meal being potatoes and meat.” I will never forget that day, he added.
“In SOS Village’s real loving home for children, I got a chance to be raised in a family that truly loved me as their own. I was able to regain my positive outlook in life and healed my broken heart as the days went by. There were more than 300 children and we were all going through different phases of trauma and we were all healing with the help from the love that we go from SOS mothers and the families we started establishing. The psycho-social support from the counsellors were extremely important for us to come back to normal life.”
Baziga considers his SOS mother as a role model as she taught him and his siblings to be responsible and confident in whatever they do. “Coming first in class was the goal she set for us and until now, I have that drive which pushes me to do better in life. Even after we leave, our SOS mothers are our mothers for life and we are forever indebted to SOS for that.”
The skills and the commitment to hard work he learned growing up in the village still remains with him today. This he claims is the root to his success today. Aloys Baziga, now, a father to two children, he is the Finance Director at Kepler (An International NGO registered in USA, working in Rwanda to support economically vulnerable young people to access tertiary education) based in Kigali. He Holds BBA in accounting and he is currently at completion stage of ACCA qualification with ACCA UK with MSc route in University of London, UK. He is also a Member of SOS Children’s Villages Rwanda General Assembly.
He ended by saying, “SOS Children’s Villages Rwanda has paved my way and I was lucky to get those opportunities that was provided to me. I advise my fellow little brothers and sister to not waste the same opportunities that is provided to them today.”