Bienvenu Ntampaka

I was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 1988, where I grew up with my father, mother and grandmother. My father worked in the mines, and my mother made braids for women's hair. My parents eventually divorced, and my mum remarried.

When I was seven years old, I moved with my two uncles' families and my grandmother to Rwanda, because Rwandans who lived in DRC were under threat. My mother stayed in Congo because she thought that she would be protected by her husband who was Congolese. My father also stayed there. We arrived in Kigali in 1995, after the Rwandan genocide. I remember that in many areas we passed, there were few people still alive and many houses were empty, with bodies laying inside and sometimes outside. Some of those houses were occupied by new owners. We ended up living in an abandoned house.

My father died in the war in DRC that took place after the genocide. My mother, after realizing that she was not safe, came to Rwanda as well, with her husband and their two children whose existence was unknown to me until then. When they returned, I was already in primary school. My mother and my stepdad didn't know anyone who could give them a job, and both had only a primary school education. They struggled to find a job, but today, my stepdad works as a house guard, and my mother braids women's hair as she did in the past. After a long time, they had another child, who was the third and last of my siblings.

While I attended primary and secondary school, the biggest challenge was paying for school fees and materials, such as notebooks, pens, and books. When I lived with my uncles' families, we lived too far from school for me to go home and eat lunch most days. I was grateful when one of my friends who lived nearby decided to return early from lunch and brought me something to eat. At school, I learned more than what was taught in the classroom; I learned about surviving with what you were given and about finding friends who console you and sympathize with you.

I have always believed that studying was the first step in building a better future. With guidance and support from my uncles and generous organizations, I was able to finish my primary and secondary school education, and now I will be able to attend a university since I've been selected as an ORI Scholar. Because of ORI, I am now studying in the Civil Engineering faculty at the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST).

I am interested in civil engineering for two reasons. First, I have always had a passion for construction. Even when I was young, I liked to make houses out of boxes. Second, Rwanda is working to achieve the goals described in Vision 2020, the national development plan, and civil engineering is playing a great role in that vision. After obtaining a degree, I want to complete my masters. I want to pursue this career and eventually improve my family's standard of living. I will be the most satisfied if I can build houses for orphans, because when I see children suffering, I wonder "Why do they suffer?" If I get the opportunity, I would like to use my skills to help them.