During the final days of the war of 1994, Geraldine U. was with her grandmother. (Her parents had been killed by then.) There was panic as everybody in the capital city, Kigali, Rwanda, scrambled to go through the safe passage that had been created. Bullets flew in every direction. Geraldine’s grandmother grabbed her tiny hand along with that of another grandson. In the frantic rush, Geraldine was lost. For six years, she was believed dead—killed like the rest of the family. The grandmother continued to the Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire). She left Zaire for Uganda for her safety after six months of agony. Geraldine, then just three, continued to be in exile with different company. It is from there that she was brought back to her home country when the rest of the people came back. It took more than six years (2000) before Geraldine found her way home to her grandmother. It was like seeing someone from the dead. All hope of getting her back alive had rescinded. The moment at last had come for her to start all over again, to feel the bonds of a family life. She was reunited with her grandmother with whom she is now staying. Her tender years were disrupted by the war and the death of her own parents and going into exile. What a way to live a life! She has now to live with that painful past like many other orphans that are the direct result of the terrible events of genocide in Rwanda.

Geraldine is 12 years old and is in the 4^th grade. Her initial school years were lost in the Genocide war.