Name: Naomi

Father’s name: Tshimpela

Mother’s name: Bitanda

Child name: Kawata, 13 Months old

Naomi was born in 14.02.2000 in the family of eight children and she is the second born. The break out of civil war in Eastern DRC were the father was working broke many homes and families.

Naomi’s father was a civil servant, and being from another region of Kasai he was transferred to go and work in the Eastern part of the DRC. When the civil war started, Naomi and her brothers and sisters escaped from the attack; the parents also escaped, but the family was separated as they fled. The journey was challenging for the children. The long distances and hunger in the bush meant that four of her siblings died on the way. Naomi and three of her siblings managed to reach Lubumbashi, where they regularly visited Centre Kimbilio. As the eldest living child, Naomi became the breadwinner in the family, and she told her other brothers that she was going to the Kasumbalesa border. When we noticed at the day center that she was no longer coming with her brothers, we asked the other children, who told us that they went to the border and returned to the Kasai region.

Being at Kasumbalesa, she started spending days and nights in abandoned buildings until she joined a group of other girls in similar situations. From her friend’s destructive influence, she started smoking, drinking alcohol, and being involved in prostitution. The other children from the day center went to the border and told Naomi that the day center was looking for her. By the time she returned to the daily center she was already given birth to her son, Bruno.

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