Orphaned at eight years old, Angelique struggled with her sister Clementine just to survive in Rwanda. Because she was so young, no one would hire her to work. She and her sister were forced to beg for food to eat. During the dry season when there were no crops, people had little or nothing to give them. Often they went days without eating. Once, she relates, they had gone a week with no food. “We cried and cried,” she recalls.
One day, they found a field of cassava (a root vegetable). They dug one up and ate it raw. The farmer caught and threatened to beat them. Angelique begged and pleaded with him not to hurt them, and he finally relented. But he told them never to come around his farm again.
That experience has stayed with her for the past eight years as the lowest point of her life. Last year, at age 15, she joined the Zoe Empowers empowerment program, and since then she has become a successful businesswoman. With her business partner, she makes and sells sorghum drink in her town. They have rented a small house where they can dry the sorghum, roast it, grind it and boil it into the popular, nonalcoholic drink. They also use the house as a shop to sell their drinks.
Now she has enough money to support herself and her sister. She rents a house, and they have enough nutritious food to eat every day. She is thankful to God and to Zoe Empowers for the transformation in her life.