Harmonie is the third born of her eight siblings, and she is the only girl in this family. This family’s life in Lubumbashi (Haut Katanga Province) was hard. Eventually, her parents decided to relocate from Lubumbashi to Mbuji Mayi (Kasai province). Three years later, three of her brothers were killed in illegal diamond mining activities.

In the Kasai province, life continued to get worse for the family with their father passing away. It was even worse than the life they had in Lubumbashi. The mother could not afford to support all five children, so she decided to return to Lubumbashi and get married again.

At first, everything started to get better with her stepfather until he decided to invest in her mother to start a small business. This meant that her mother started traveling to the border of Kasumbalesa to buy and sell fruits, sometimes taking her away for one or two nights. Harmonie was the only grown-up girl in the house, so she was responsible for taking care of the house, fixing food for the father, cleaning the house, and looking after her little brothers.

Her mother was absent for long periods, sometimes overnight, which gave the stepfather the opportunity to abuse Harmonie. He told her that she must not tell her mother and started to give her money. One day Harmonie gained the courage to tell her mother what was happening, but her mother turned against her and threw her onto the street. Harmonie was twelve when this occurred.

While living on the street, she was introduced to Kimbilio by other street-connected girls, and she started attending the daily center. Harmonie says that she never meant to find herself living on the streets, but the hardship pushed her to have a baby girl with a man who denied the pregnancy.