Their Story
Chantal, Yvette, and Christophe lost their mother and father in the worst way imaginable, as a result of a war crime. A genocidal militia attacked their village in Congo early one morning in August 1998, when the parents were out working in the fields. The children, all under ten years old, fled with their teenaged aunt. They assumed they would find their parents again on the road, but never did. After years of asking friends and relatives, and writing letters through the Red Cross, they gave them up for dead.
The children spent the next twenty years as refugees, years of hunger, fear, privation and violence. Eventually, they settled in a refugee camp in Burundi, over 1,000km from home. Finally, in 2017, along with Chantal’s two young children, they were able to move to Canada, three orphans who had helped each other survive, to start a new life.
And then, two years later, they got a call from a man, also resettled in Canada, who had known the family before the war. He had been visiting a refugee camp in Uganda, where he had, he said, stumbled upon their parents. They had four other children now, plus grandchildren. He sent a photo. But, faced with this overwhelming news, the siblings were skeptical. It was hard to be sure, from the photo, so many years later. And it wasn’t uncommon for desperate people to claim to be someone’s relative to escape the camps.
Two of their sponsors had a friend, Moses, in Kampala. Armed only with a photo, Moses set off for the camp, one of the largest in Africa, to try to find this family. After days of driving, of false leads and false hopes, Moses managed to find a family that looked right. He asked them pointed questions. This isn’t something you want to get wrong. “Tell me,” he said, finally, “have you ever lost any children?” The father, a pastor, teared up, “We once had three little ones, Chantal, Yvette, and Christophe. But they are with God now.” Moses sent a message to Toronto:
“They are the right people.”
Four years have passed since that unforgettable day, one their father calls a “resurrection”. Each of the siblings has been able to travel to Uganda to be reunited with their lost family. Some of the images and video you see on this site are from those journeys.
But the family is still in Uganda, their resettlement delayed by the pandemic and bureaucratic procedure. The parents are aging and the young are losing precious opportunities for education and personal development. Life in the camps is difficult and insecure. And there is no going back to Congo, which remains extremely violent.
In the spring of 2023, the family was notified that they had been selected for resettlement to Canada. They were interviewed and underwent necessary medical tests. All that remains before final approval is for us, their sponsors, to raise sufficient funds for their first year in Canada.
Four years have passed since that unforgettable day, one their father calls a “resurrection”. Each of the siblings has been able to travel to Uganda to be reunited with their lost family. Some of the images and video you see on this site are from those journeys.
But the family is still in Uganda, their resettlement delayed by the pandemic and bureaucratic procedure. The parents are aging and the young are losing precious opportunities for education and personal development. Life in the camps is difficult and insecure. And there is no going back to Congo, which remains extremely violent.
In the spring of 2023, the family was notified that they had been selected for resettlement to Canada. They were interviewed and underwent necessarily medical tests. All that remains before final approval is for us, their sponsors, to raise sufficient funds for their first year in Canada.