She is 15 but at that age, she is already tasked with the huge responsibility of taking care of her two brothers and one sister, all alone. She is just a kid but at 15 she plays the role of both the head of a family and a parent to her siblings. To make matters worse, she just started her first class in secondary school and she still has three more years to complete her education which means that she has to juggle between school and parenting her siblings. It is a formidable experience but she has no alternative.

A dangerous ethnic feud between her tribe and a rival one led to the murder of Rosa’s husband and the fleeing of Rosa from Burundi to Malawi. Even though she escaped her home country over a decade ago, it is apparent that the emotional scars and mental anguish that the murder of her husband caused are still stubbornly imprinted in her mind. Rosa narrates the painful story with trembling in her voice. She recalls the details vividly. It was one terrible night when assailants invaded Rosa and her husband’s house and abducted the husband before her very eyes. They disappeared with him in the dead of night amid her screams of terror and pleas for help.