Aimerance says that things turned bad when she lost her father at the age of 8 years. Her mother could not afford money to spend on their education and provide for their needs. The mother took Aimerance to the neighbor so that she could help them with housework. Life was okay with the neighbors, but then her uncle from the rural area came into the city. He wanted to take care of his deceased brother’s children. Aimerance was told to leave the neighbor’s home and returned to her mother. Their uncle stayed six months; however, things did not go well between Aimerance’s mother and her uncle, and he sold the family home which the deceased father left.

Aimerance’s mother was furious, and she decided to leave and abandon the children since the house was the only source of income of the family. The children were displaced: the little one went with the mother, and Aimerance with her sister went to the market of the city center of Lubumbashi where they started helping vendors in the market by sweeping their shops and fetching water so that they could afford something to eat. At the age of 10, Aimerance lost her young little sister, who was found dead the following day, without her private parts and breasts. She had been raped. With all the horrible things she had seen, Aimerance left and went to Katuba where she joined another influential group of girls. Together with those girls, she started attending the Kimbilio day center, where they were given food, a place to bathe and wash their clothes. Accommodations were still a problem for them as Kimbilio has limited placements for children. As a group of girls, they started going into the clubs, sometimes sleeping with security guards and truck drivers so that they could have money for their expenses.

One day, she met a man who said he wanted to sleep with her, but the man was married. She used to work for him while she was in the market in the city center. The man got her pregnant. She said:

“When I told the man that I was pregnant, he bit me because I refused to do an abortion. He said he was no longer responsible for the pregnancy and that because I am a street kid, no one will accept that he went out with me. I found myself in the middle of the road, being pregnant with no father for the baby. Life became tough for me because I could no longer be involved in prostitution. I started attending the day center of Kimbilio for food staff, and I was sleeping in abandoned cars during the night. One day a friend of mine accompanied me to a lady who used to stay with many street girls. She helped me until I gave birth to my child.”