Unjustly Imprisoned at Age 13, Yet Not Destroyed

This is Ajabu Kalimbiro's story, one of resilience against nearly impossible odds.

Ajabu was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1988, the child of a Congolese father and a Rwandan Tutsi mother, into a family of nine children.

In 1994, following the Rwandan genocide, in which roughly 800,000 Tutsi were killed within 100 days, many of the perpetrators fled into the DRC and continued targeting Tutsi families who had settled there. Ajabu's mother survived, and the family eventually relocated to Kigali, Rwanda, though Ajabu and his older brother stayed behind in the Congo to finish school.

In 2001, at just 13 years old, Ajabu was visiting family in Kigali when a neighbour, acting on a personal grudge against his mother, falsely accused him of a serious crime. Despite it being illegal to imprison a 13-year-old, and with no formal charges or court appearance, Ajabu was jailed, the neighbour had paid a bribe to make it happen.

Prison life was brutal. Disease and hunger took many lives around him, and for a long time, he saw no reason to keep going. But he held on. At just 14, he found a community inside the prison, and over time became a source of strength and leadership for the people around him.

For six years, no one could help get him released. In 2008, he wrote to Lawyers Without Borders, appealing for help, and in August 2011, after nine years in prison, Ajabu was finally freed.

Freedom brought its own challenges. His parents had divorced, his mother was struggling financially, and his family looked to him to provide. But new opportunities began to open up, in March 2019, in partnership with a US-based organisation, a WORK 4 A LIVING training centre was established in Kigali. Ajabu was chosen and trained to become the first WORK 4 A LIVING facilitator in Rwanda.

“Now many people, young and older, are coming to our centre for training. The community is being impacted. There is hope.”

Ajabu's story is proof that where someone starts doesn't have to determine where they end up, and that the right support, at the right moment, can change the direction of an entire community.