How Louis ended up distributing free pumpkins to Catholic elementary students in Peterborough’s East City is a story of harrowing tragedy, loss, desperation and finally hope.
Louis fled his life in Rwanda in January 1997 and ended up in Kenya’s Kakuma (UNHCR) refugee camp. Both his daughters were born and raised in the camp, where he spent more than 19 years.
In 2008, Sister Ruth Hennessy of Casa Maria Refugee Homes in Peterborough sponsored the Tiboruhanga family. But it took another eight years before their resettlement to Canada was approved. Louis’s wife passed away in the camp in 2011.
The camp provided the necessities, including schooling, but Louis says he didn’t see a lot of hope for his children, who were schooled in crowded, under-resourced classrooms.
“The future in the camp was desperate," he says. "You can’t see your children excelling with 150 children in the classroom and expect to have a better future for them."