Consolée, HIV-positive: "FXB supported and accompanied me"

My name is Consolée, and I was born in 1972 into a family of eight children.

I was the youngest of the family. I was a year old when my mother passed away. I stayed with my father who died three years later in a car accident. With my older brother, I was picked up and brought up by a pastor, a friend of my father’s of Rwandan origin.

As misfortune never comes alone, a conflict broke out in his church and he ended up returning to his native country. No more stories of studies. The grief increased when, once again, I saw my brothers and sisters die one by one during the war that shook the country. Here I am alone with my last brother.

With God’s help, the Rwandan pastor never stopped assisting me. From outside the country, he found a small job for me in a hospital where, in 1999, I formed an intimate relationship with a boy from the same institution. We got married in 2000 and separated after 5 years.

We had just had two children: a girl and a boy. Recently, my husband had started sexual vagrancy. He went to Congo with another woman and my eldest daughter without even asking my opinion. I took steps to get her back and it was thanks to INTERPOL that I saw her again.

Living in this anguish for years, FXB came to me in 2007. Their support is unparalleled.

Truly, I was utterly destitute and living in ignorance. The greatest thing FXB did for me was to convince me to get tested. I weighed 40 kg at the time, believing that it was because of poverty and hunger. It was hard for me to find out, after the test, that I was HIV positive. But supported and accompanied by FXB, I started preventive treatment and regained my weight. I now weigh 66 kg.

I make a living selling brooms that I buy inside the country to export to Rwanda. This activity gives me a considerable income. My children lack nothing and thank God, after two consecutive tests, they are HIV negative. They continue their studies without interruption and live in joy!